Chelsea residents wait in line in April, 2020 at a pop-up food pantry run by La Colaborativa distributing provisions amid the pandemic. (Photo by Michael Jonas)

THE RECENT REPUBLICAN megabill, H.R.1, slashed the largest amount from basic needs programs in American history to give tax breaks to the wealthy. The bill cuts 20 percent of funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – a basic needs program that serves 1 in 6 very low-income Massachusetts residents. Eligibility restrictions in H.R.1 threaten benefits for around 110,000 current Massachusetts recipients, including families with children, older adults, veterans, and homeless households. In Greater Boston alone, Boston Indicators estimates about 40,000 very low-income adults could lose benefits.  

However, to echo Gov. Healey: “In Massachusetts, we won’t accept that.” The Commonwealth has the expertise, the resources, and the moral commitment to make sure our neighbors do not go hungry. Our leaders must act decisively to combat the harms of the bill by investing in systemic solutions that ensure residents with the lowest incomes can put food on the table.  

Doing this requires investing in the state’s SNAP agency – the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) – to make sure eligible families can readily connect to SNAP.  

Massachusetts has done much to bring SNAP to homes that need it, such as allowing people to apply for SNAP at the same time they apply for MassHealth, the state Medicaid program. This, in addition to need intensified by the pandemic and high food costs, has contributed to a 45 percent caseload increase since March 2020. But DTA staffing has not kept pace with the increase. Pre-pandemic DTA data show the ratio of SNAP cases per SNAP worker as about 900 to 1. Now, it’s 1,300 to 1 — nearly 50 percent higher.  

The consequences of this imbalance are clear: Right now, nearly three of every four calls seeking help from a SNAP worker don’t get through because DTA doesn’t have enough staff to respond. Accuracy suffers – when DTA workers can’t talk to everyone who calls, they don’t get information they need to keep case information up to date. Overburdened workers also make more mistakes, burn out, and struggle to provide efficient customer service. We see this in the data. Since August 2024 the total number of people receiving SNAP has been notching down – even though severe food insecurity has been going up – in part because people cannot get access to the help they desperately need. 

We commend the governor for committing to level funding DTA case workers in the immediate term – but in the post H.R.1 world, we must go further to invest in SNAP. For example, we should tap into the Commonwealth’s rainy day fund to alleviate the existing and potential harm to recipients and increased state costs expected in the next few years. This includes making sure DTA has enough staff to enroll all eligible Massachusetts families and minimize mistakes.  

Even before the bill’s cuts, SNAP was not enough to meet the cost of a meal in any Massachusetts county. We know our colleagues in the emergency food delivery system do heroic work each day trying to address gaps. We have also seen great examples of philanthropic institutions, like the Boston Foundation, coming forward to help alleviate the cruelty and shortsightedness of the president’s legislation.  

But philanthropy can’t fully replace what food assistance programs offer. SNAP alone brings $2.6 billion in federal aid to the Commonwealth each year, accounting for $1 of every $5 spent at grocery stores in Massachusetts. While H.R. 1 may pass a percentage of those costs to Massachusetts (as much as 15 percent) based on the state’s effectiveness at delivering benefits, even at the highest rate, the cost share is a burden worth bearing. Any policy reducing SNAP eligibility in Massachusetts would likely not only hurt local businesses, it would also worsen health outcomes, increase health care costs, force residents to go hungry, and harm other programs like the Commonwealth’s universal school meal program. 

In this environment, strengthening and improving the efficiency of the DTA is an economic and moral imperative. We look forward to working with Gov. Healey, our Legislature, and partners to chart a path forward in Massachusetts that expands SNAP’s reach and fully harnesses the most efficient, impactful, and cost-effective program we have to reduce hunger and poverty. 

Victoria Negus is a senior economic justice advocate at the Massachusetts Law Reform Insitute. Peter Ciurczak is senior research analyst at Boston Indicators.