The Food Bank advocates for change, bringing issues of hunger to the forefront and empowering people to work towards developing long-term solutions.

Why we Advocate

At the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, we recognize that providing food to community members experiencing hunger is only a temporary fix. Real solutions require addressing the underlying causes of hunger in our region, including institutional racism and economic inequities.

Increasing Opportunity: The Economic Pathways Coalition

This group seeks to alleviate the Cliff Effect, a phenomenon that occurs when a small pay increase causes a low income worker to loose a disproportionate amount of benefits, leaving them financially worse off.

Visit the Coalition website >

Supporting our Students: The Hunger Free Campus Initiative

Led by the Western Massachusetts and Greater Boston Food Banks in partnership with student advocacy group MASSPIRG to address food insecurity among college students on Massachusetts Campuses.

Visit the Initiative website >

Policy Priorities

Approved by the Food Bank Board of Directors each year, our Policy Priorities are a guidepost for how we approach legislative advocacy. There are three categories a policy priority can be sorted in to, and they are done so to guide how actively the Food Bank engages with the drafting and promotion of legislation.

Primary Focus policy initiatives are led or co-led by the Food Bank itself. Legislation in this category has the most direct impact on hunger and its underlying causes.
Secondary Focus policies are initiatives that have clear impacts on hunger and its underlying causes and are therefore are advocated for by the Food Bank, but are not policies the Food Bank is best positioned to lead advocacy on. Many of these policies protect and strengthen programs that are anti‐poverty, anti‐racist, and educational in nature.
Other Supported Policies support the advancement of equity more generally, and like Secondary Focus Policies have advocacy initiatives led by other organizations. These are policies the Food Bank may not engage in direct advocacy for, but officially support.

View a PDF of our full 2025 Policy Priorities >

Federal Public Policy

Primary Focus

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides money to eligible recipients each month to purchase food.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) provides food to food banks, which our member food pantries, meal sites, and shelters then distribute to eligible households.
The Farm Bill is an expansive piece of legislation that governs many nutrition and agriculture programs.

Secondary Focus

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working people with children.
The Child Tax Credit Expansion was a COVID-era change to the CTC that broadened eligibility and the frequency of disbursements.
Oppose changes to “Public Charge” and other rules that put vulnerable populations at risk.
Encourage participation in the democratic process through voter education, registration, and engagement with elected officials.

State Public Policy

Primary Focus

The Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP)
The Hunger‐Free Campus Initiative
HIP—the Healthy Incentives Program
Regional Transportation Advocacy
Bridge to Prosperity Cliff Effect Pilot
The establishment of a commission to study the strengths and sustainability of the state’s food access network, HD.2378.

Secondary Focus

Support state-level work to implement relevant pillars of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Health, and Nutrition.
An Act fostering agricultural resilience in MA, SD.2144/HD.403.
An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need, SD.834/HD.403.
An act ensuring tuition equity at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, SD.858.
Expand food literacy in MA schools, SD.1235/HD.2100.
Proposal for a legislative amendment to the constitution relative to agricultural and horticultural lands, SD.1673/HD.2701.

Other Supported Policies

Affordable housing and utilities
Access to affordable services/education, such as childcare, higher education, behavioral health services, substance abuse treatment, and services for seniors and people with disabilities.
Universal access to affordable health insurance.
Farm to School initiatives.
Support other organizations’ policy priorities when overlapping and appropriate.