What's new at MLS

A few announcements below. Unless there is breaking news, we likely won't send another eblast until the New Year. The last year has been one of many challenges - but we have also seen time and time again that this Coalition is a powerful force in making change!! We look forward to our…

We hope you are gearing up for some relaxing and safe time with family and friends. We have a couple of items to share with you before the holiday break the next two weeks. If you are working with Haitian immigrant families, see important information below. Our next SNAP Coalition meeting…

Thanks to those of you who participated in Wednesday's Health Care Working Group meeting.  We're passing on info related to several of the agenda items at that meeting: 1. Extension of reply deadline on EOHHS Equity RFI to Jan 15, 2022 2. Copy of Kara's slide deck on…

This eblast has a number of announcements and information for Coalition tomorrow - please note the changed Zoom link for Coalition and use this link tomorrow. Note this is the LAST Coalition meeting for 2021. There is NO Coalition the week of December 20th.  The Coalition will…

Seriously, this is NO JOKE!  Yesterday, April 1st, the Biden Administration announced that the very lowest income households, the poorest SNAP recipients, will get an additional boost in their SNAP benefits. See April 1st media announcement.  And Massachusetts households will…

We are writing to ask you to reach out to low income veterans whose SNAP benefits may have been reduced or terminated because DTA incorrectly counted VA Pension monies the veteran does not receive. In addition to a host of troubling DTA "data matches" (matches involving…

We are hearing ongoing rumblings of problems getting through to DTA. One example from today from a community advocate:     "Every time I have tried to call DTA'€™s new main number or the recipient services line, I get the same message: âDue to an extremely high volume of calls,…

MassHealth and the Connector have posted the new paper application form to be used in applying for MassHealth, subsidized insurance through the Connector, CMSP and the Health Safety Net for people under age 65.  It's the ACA-3 (Oct…

USDA recently posted the state-by-state SNAP "timeliness processing" data for FFY 2013 (that's federal fiscal year for Oct 1, 2012 to Sept 31, 2013).    According to USDA, Massachusetts fell from 10th in the nation in FFY 2011 in processing SNAP applications to 39th in…

The Department of Public Health (DPH) has formally announced the WIC switch to the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system from the the more cumbersome food vouchers, This is a significant change for both WIC participants as well as retailers and should be an improvement in…