What's new at MLS

Greetings SNAP Coalition members.   First, we want to name our collective mourning after the murders of 8 people, including 6 Asian American women, in Georgia on Tuesday. MLRI stands against racial hatred, discrimination, white supremacy, and terrorism and will continue to work to…

The American Rescue Plan Act includes many valuable benefits for low income Massachusetts families, not least more affordable insurance coverage through the Health Connector in 2021 and 2022 and relief from "reconciliation" for the unpredictable year of 2020 when people who received…

Thanks again to all of you who participated in yesterday’s SNAP Coalition meeting – 92 participants, WOW!  And huge thanks again to DTA for keeping all the SNAP engines firing with the SNAP supplement, waiving interviews  and pursuing additional flexibilities around Interim…

TO: SNAP Coalition Members FR:  Pat Baker   Just a reminder of the Health Care for All Health Justice Academy series (every Wednesday in October), including this afternoon's 3 PM webinar on "Food and nutrition challenges, resources, and opportunities for immigrant…

The public health emergency which Sec Azar first announced in January, 2020 is up for renewal every 90 days. On Oct 2 he renewed the emergency declaration for another 90 days from Oct 23.   Most of the Medicaid protections during the pandemic, such as the moratorium on…

 A number of updates below after Tuesday's Coalition meeting - This is a long one, but we have a lot of info to get to you all! Thank you to Ellen Vollinger from the Food Research and Action Center for her presentation on the federal landscape and to Brittany Mangini from DTA for her…

DTA and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) have a special "Heat and Eat" Fuel Assistance program, or H-EAT. This program has helped thousands of elderly and disabled households qualify for higher SNAP benefits. We are writing to share some updates with the DTA…

DTA recently updated a number of materials in the DTA Online Guide (policy manual for DTA staff). These updates were sent to DTA staff and case managers on Friday, 3/31, and are important for community partners to know!  For example, it can be helpful to point directly to DTA policy…

MBTA Youth Pass In February the MBTA announced a special discount Youth Pass program for low-income youth who are not enrolled in a traditional high school (These discounts are already offered to high school students.) The Youth Pass program is for individuals under the age of 26 who are in…