During a time when Massachusetts low income families are struggling mightily to buy groceries and feed their children...
The Massachusetts Governor, Maura Healy, has snipped $10 million dollars from the budget that WOULD have paid for the Healthy Incentives Program for the entire year. Now, because of Healy, it's Merry Christmas and EFF you to all, including the farmers who benefit from the program.
"WORCESTER ― Once the state implements cuts to the Healthy Incentives Program on Dec. 1, a move administrators deem necessary to ensure the program runs throughout the year, Maria Diaz will not be able to purchase the crunchy red apples her son Brayden loves to eat.
“It will be financially hard to buy food for my family of six,” Diaz said. The Worcester resident is a regular at the Beaver Brook Farmers Market on Chandler Street, where she loads up on fresh vegetables and fruits using her SNAP benefits card to make the purchases.
Currently up to $80 a month — the limit for households with six people or more — will be reimbursed to the card for purchases of local fruits and vegetables from farm vendors. Participants can then use the reimbursement to purchase other SNAP-eligible items.
But come December, the cap will be cut to $20 a month for ALL participants.
“This is a fantastic program,” said David Reed, executive director of Central Mass Grown, a nonprofit that represents more than 100 small farms in Worcester County. “This has meant free healthy fruits and vegetables for our neighbors experiencing food insecurity, and financial support for small local farms, some who say 50% of their income is made through the HIP program.”
According to the program website, two-person households can get up to $40 a month, three- to five-person households are eligible for up to $60 a month and families of six or more are eligible for $80. Expenditures must be made at farm stands, farmers markets and mobile markets, and when families participate in a Community Supported Agriculture share program.
David Harper, owner of Harper’s Farm and Garden in Lancaster, said the looming cuts will prompt him to rethink his spring planting schedule and which farmers markets to attend. The Beaver Brook market in Worcester is huge for HIP benefits, Harper said, calculating that 80% of the shoppers use SNAP benefits, WIC benefits or senior farmers market coupons to make their purchases.
“Surely, given the millions and millions of dollars our federal delegation brings into our commonwealth each year, we can find money in our state budget to make up the difference, so this successful program continues to support hungry families and the local farmers who provide us with the best produce around. Massachusetts has proven to the country that this successful model works — we can’t turn our backs now,” he said.
Massachusetts legislators are also weighing in on the cuts announced this month.
“We were caught off-guard when it was first announced. We were told the same day as the farmers and consumers,” said Rep. David LeBoeuf, D-Worcester, a member of the Food Systems Caucus in the Legislature, who was at the Beaver Brook market on Friday morning. “We are asking the Senate and House to add funding to a future supplemental budget. It’s an important program and doesn’t make sense to downsize it.”
Sen. Rebecca Rausch, D-Needham, expressed her disappointment at the projected cuts and supports maintaining the program at its current reimbursement levels.
“I believe strongly that everyone deserves fresh, healthy food. HIP has been successful at improving Massachusetts families’ access to healthy food,” Rausch said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, when asked about the cuts, pointed to the money being spent by the administration to feed newly arrived residents in the emergency shelter system.
"The Healthy Incentives Program is critical to providing those in need with fresh fruits and vegetables. But this program, like many other state-funded programs, is feeling the effects of a $4 billion emergency shelter system in which each migrant in the program is provided $64 per day for food,” Fattman said.
Fattman predicted that many programs in Massachusetts will face similar shortfalls due to the expense of the emergency shelter system."
https://www.telegram.com/story/news/state/2024/10/27/families-farmers-respondto-mass-hip-program-cuts/
"WORCESTER ― Once the state implements cuts to the Healthy Incentives Program on Dec. 1, a move administrators deem necessary to ensure the program runs throughout the year, Maria Diaz will not be able to purchase the crunchy red apples her son Brayden loves to eat.
“It will be financially hard to buy food for my family of six,” Diaz said. The Worcester resident is a regular at the Beaver Brook Farmers Market on Chandler Street, where she loads up on fresh vegetables and fruits using her SNAP benefits card to make the purchases.
Currently up to $80 a month — the limit for households with six people or more — will be reimbursed to the card for purchases of local fruits and vegetables from farm vendors. Participants can then use the reimbursement to purchase other SNAP-eligible items.
But come December, the cap will be cut to $20 a month for ALL participants.
“This is a fantastic program,” said David Reed, executive director of Central Mass Grown, a nonprofit that represents more than 100 small farms in Worcester County. “This has meant free healthy fruits and vegetables for our neighbors experiencing food insecurity, and financial support for small local farms, some who say 50% of their income is made through the HIP program.”
According to the program website, two-person households can get up to $40 a month, three- to five-person households are eligible for up to $60 a month and families of six or more are eligible for $80. Expenditures must be made at farm stands, farmers markets and mobile markets, and when families participate in a Community Supported Agriculture share program.
David Harper, owner of Harper’s Farm and Garden in Lancaster, said the looming cuts will prompt him to rethink his spring planting schedule and which farmers markets to attend. The Beaver Brook market in Worcester is huge for HIP benefits, Harper said, calculating that 80% of the shoppers use SNAP benefits, WIC benefits or senior farmers market coupons to make their purchases.
“Surely, given the millions and millions of dollars our federal delegation brings into our commonwealth each year, we can find money in our state budget to make up the difference, so this successful program continues to support hungry families and the local farmers who provide us with the best produce around. Massachusetts has proven to the country that this successful model works — we can’t turn our backs now,” he said.
Massachusetts legislators are also weighing in on the cuts announced this month.
“We were caught off-guard when it was first announced. We were told the same day as the farmers and consumers,” said Rep. David LeBoeuf, D-Worcester, a member of the Food Systems Caucus in the Legislature, who was at the Beaver Brook market on Friday morning. “We are asking the Senate and House to add funding to a future supplemental budget. It’s an important program and doesn’t make sense to downsize it.”
Sen. Rebecca Rausch, D-Needham, expressed her disappointment at the projected cuts and supports maintaining the program at its current reimbursement levels.
“I believe strongly that everyone deserves fresh, healthy food. HIP has been successful at improving Massachusetts families’ access to healthy food,” Rausch said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, when asked about the cuts, pointed to the money being spent by the administration to feed newly arrived residents in the emergency shelter system.
"The Healthy Incentives Program is critical to providing those in need with fresh fruits and vegetables. But this program, like many other state-funded programs, is feeling the effects of a $4 billion emergency shelter system in which each migrant in the program is provided $64 per day for food,” Fattman said.
Fattman predicted that many programs in Massachusetts will face similar shortfalls due to the expense of the emergency shelter system."
https://www.telegram.com/story/news/state/2024/10/27/families-farmers-respondto-mass-hip-program-cuts/
