June 29, 2016

Food Security Outreach Project fights hunger!

In collaboration with the Worcester County Food Bank, Community Legal Aid has started the Food Security Outreach Project. This project headed by Attorney Gina Plata-Nino was started to help more eligible families keep their SNAP benefits thus ensuring more families don’t go hungry. Over the past year, many families have lost their SNAP benefits through no fault of their own. In addition, because of a change in state law, a new group of single adults are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits if they are not working. However, there are legal protections that could help these adults maintain coverage. To help more individuals at risk of hunger, CLA and the Worcester County Food Bank are working together to provide trainings to medical providers and to volunteers for general SNAP outreach across the community.

Part 1

For the first part of the project, CLA will train medical providers and clinicians about SNAP laws. Single adults without a disability or without dependents will no longer be eligible for SNAP benefits after three months. However, certain medical conditions like a serious mental illness or a long-term illness, such as cancer may make a person unfit for work. CLA plans to train medical providers on what to look for in patients and how to fill out the form, which deems their patient as unfit to work. This will enable more people to receive SNAP benefits who could greatly benefit from them.

Part 2

The second part of the project is a general SNAP outreach for people who should be getting SNAP benefits but are not. CLA will train volunteers and students to educate the community about SNAP benefits and teach people how to sign up and fill out the application. In addition, if a volunteer learns that someone was denied SNAP benefits, the volunteer can refer him or her to CLA for assistance.

Together, CLA and the Worcester County Food Bank believe that they can further the fight against hunger in Central Massachusetts. 

If you would like more information, please feel free to contact Gina Plata-Nino at (508) 425-2828 or at gplatanino@cwjustice.org