Urge MetroWest Senators to Support Key Food System Budget Amendments

It’s that time of year again - Massachusetts budget season. And this year, with federal threats to SNAP, the termination of local food purchasing funding for food banks and schools, attacks on our immigrant communities, and other actions that undermine food access, the stakes of our FY 2026 state budget feel particularly high.

The MA House has already voted on and passed their budget, and Senate Ways & Means has issued their budget. Several Senators have introduced amendments to the Senate Ways & Means budget that would support our farmers, students, lower-income individuals and families, and our regional food system as a whole. Senators have until Monday, May 19th to review these amendments and sign on as co-sponsors, before the Senate budget debate begins. There is no limit to the number of amendments that a Senator can co-sponsor. 

With the guidance of our coalition partners, the MetroWest Food Collaborative has defined six amendments that we are urging our MetroWest Senators to support. Please join us in calling and emailing them by Friday, May 16 to let them know you support these amendments and want them to do the same. 

1. Amendment #327: Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA), $7,000,000, Senator Eldridge. This LFPA amendment would support a previously federally funded program that was suddenly terminated by the Trump administration earlier this spring. Administered by the MA Department of Agricultural Resources, the program would provide nonprofit food assistance organizations with funding to purchase food from local farmers and fishers, to distribute to food pantries and other food access sites. This would increase access to local food in the emergency food assistance system (which is also facing decimating cuts), continue a market channel for local producers, and reduce food insecurity.

2. Amendment #328: Local Food for Schools Program, $2,500,000, Senator Eldridge. Local Food For Schools would continue a previously federally funded program that was abruptly terminated by the Trump administration earlier this year. Administered by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the program would provide K-12 schools and early education programs with additional funds to purchase local foods for use in school meal programs, increasing access to nourishing foods for all students while supporting our local farmers, fishers, and food producers.

3. Amendment #469: Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) Enabling legislation, no cost, Senator Tarr. This amendment mirrors the language in the HIP enabling bill (S.104 / H.222), which would enact the program into law permanently, and re-create a trust for program funds. We will continue to support the Senate Ways and Means' proposal for $25.4 million for HIP during the next steps of the budget process.

4. Amendment #625: Food Literacy, $1,000,000, Senator Lewis. This funding would support DESE in expanding opportunities for students to learn about nutrition, culinary skills, and other food system issues via another level round of FRESH grants and district wellness policy development and implementation coaching.

5. Amendment #829: Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs), Senator Kennedy. Increases general RTA operating dollars by $3 million, bringing the total RTA funding level to $217M. This level of funding ensures that agencies are able to keep pace with inflation, sustaining transit services in the over 250 cities and towns that rely on RTA service to get where they need to go.

6. Amendment #501: Funding to Replace Stolen Nutrition Benefits, Senator Kennedy. Provides $10 million to replace stolen benefits for SNAP customers until DTA can implement chip EBT cards. At the federal level, the U.S. Congress ended the replacement of SNAP benefits stolen after December 20, 2024. (Currently, around $1 million in benefits are stolen from low-income SNAP households in Massachusetts each month, and 7,800 families had SNAP benefits stolen and not replaced between January and March of this year, according to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, MLRI.)

Need to find your Senator? Go here: malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator

When you call, you will most likely speak with a legislative staff member. Make sure to:

• State your name,

• State your town of residence and zip code,

• State the amendments that you are calling in support of,

• Urge the Senator to co-sponsor these amendments,

• Thank the Senator for any amendments they filed or have already supported (**the Senator listed above next to the title is the person who filed the amendment).

Thank you for taking action for food access, equity, and a stronger regional food system!

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Click here to see a more comprehensive list of food system-related budget items, and their current status, in a table provided by the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. 

For a breakdown of the Massachusetts budget cycle, see this State Budget 101 Primer from the Mass Budget and Policy Center or check out our budget blog post from last year.