Public Health Emergency Update; Hunger Free Campus event at UMass Lowell tomorrow; Lawrence area EBT cards and Skimming

First HUGE THANKS to all the MA orgs who signed onto the letter to Congress urging extension of the CTC and EITC.  We have over 75 MA orgs and still counting. Once FRAC posts the final letter, we will ship on the link. MA Rocks! .

Biden Admin to extend the Public Health Emergency Declaration beyond Jan 11th 

Late Friday evening, the Biden Administration announced they would not be issuing the 60 day advance notice to states for the end of the public health emergency (PHE). See 11/10/22 and CNBC News. This action suggests there will likely be another 90 day extension in January 2023 because of the continued uncertainties of Covid. On a practical level, this means that the SNAP emergency allotments and other policies (such as the college student exemptions) will likely continue through the spring of 2023. We will have more updates at the December 6th SNAP Coalition meeting. 

Hunger Free Campus event at UMass Lowell tomorrow, Tuesday from 3-4 PM

Tomorrow,  November 15th, UMass Lowell is co-hosting a Hunger Free Campus event with Swipe Out Hunger and the MA Hunger Free Campus Coalition. If you are in the area, please join the Coalition. Flier with information is below.

DTA - Lawrence area residents getting SNAP must re-PIN to use DTA benefits!

Due to an increase in SNAP benefits stolen by skimming, SNAP households who live in the Lawrence/Haverhill area, who haven’t recently re-PINed or gotten a new EBT card, must re-PIN their card this week in order to use their benefits. The Lawrence DTA office will be open Saturday, November 19, from 9:00 AM - 1 PM to help people with re-PINing. 

For more information, see DTA’s press release here. 

Next SNAP Coalition Meeting, December 6th

Just a reminder, there is NO meeting next Tuesday, November 22nd. We merge the November and December meetings to one in early December.