Advocates Update from Northwest Harvest

Advocates Update Thursday, October 10      IN THIS ISSUE Help End the Government Shutdown Northwest Harvest PO Box 12272 Seattle, Washington 98102 800-722-6924 The mission of Northwest Harvest is to provide nutritious food to hungry people statewide in a manner that respects their dignity, while fighting to eliminate hunger.  Your Weekly Action Alert:  Help End the Government Shutdown Federal Level:   The shutdown of the federal government continues into a second week, but if Congress fails to end this impasse soon, America is at risk of another financial crisis. Read more     What You Can Do:  Call and Share Stories to Help End the Shutdown!   The only way we can end this shutdown is by making Congressional members feel the heat from voters who are angry about the loss of programs and services. Please do your part today by calling and sharing stories about the impact of the shutdown on you or someone you know. Here are several ways that you can do that quickly and easily. Call 1-888-659-9562* today through Friday. You'll be asked for your zip code and will then be connected to the office of your member of Congress toll-free. Because of the furlough, offices are handling phone calls in different ways: in some cases, you may only be able to leave a voicemail, but in some cases, the Congressional member may answer the phone because their staff has been laid off. Our experience with Washington's Congressional members has been that staff has been able to answer the phone and take a message. Here's a suggested message: As your constituent, I want you to act NOW to end the government shutdown and prevent the economic catastrophe of a government default, without conditions.  Please vote to restore funding for all of the services that families count on and to protect food stamps, WIC, emergency food, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. *Special thanks to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for making this phone number available!    In some cases, Congressional members whose staff has been furloughed are unable to get messages or emails. You can still share your stories about the shutdown using social media and by writing letters to the editor of your local paper. When tweeting or Facebooking about effects of the shutdown, be sure to use the hashtag #shutdown.     Share your stories with Northwest Harvest! We're compiling stories to relay to Congressional members about what is happening in their districts in order to help urge an end to the shutdown. You can email your stories to our Public Policy Manager: christinaw@northwestharvest.org    Share this alert far and wide and quickly with your contacts!  Tip for Our Partners: It's important to share information with clients and with your community about the shutdown in order to help prepare for a response to need. You can share our recent blog post about the shutdown's effect on food and nutrition programs as well as this alert to help answer questions or clear up misunderstandings if a client thinks that the shutdown is to blame for the loss of any food related benefits this month.  More importantly, sharing this information may inspire those who are most affected by this shutdown to act and to call their Congressional members!