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 2024 Policy Priorities >

Federal Public Policy

Primary Focus

Federal Nutrition programs in the Farm Bill;
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)

Other federal nutrition programs:
- Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Secondary Focus

Budget, tax proposals, and welfare reform:
- Earned Income Tax Credit
- Child Tax Credit Expansion
Pillars 1-3 of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Health and Nutrition.
Encouraging participation in the democratic process

State Public Policy

Primary Focus

Secondary Focus

Expanded food literacy in MA schools
State funded nutrition benefits for immigrants not eligible for SNAP

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 disabled people.
Universal access to affordable health insurance
Farm to School initiatives