Northwest Harvest Advocates Update

Advocates Update Tuesday, May 14      IN THIS ISSUE Fill the Plate with Your Message to Protect and Strengthen State Nutrition Programs! Tell our Senators and your Congressional Representative that SNAP WORKS! Upcoming Events  June 11, 2:30-4:30 p.m.:Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition general membership meeting(Location TBA) 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:   Farm Bill Proposals Make Deep Cuts to SNAP; Speak Up for Hunger during Special Session State Level:  Legislators have another 30 days to come to an agreement on the budget and hopefully invest funding in our state's nutrition programs. READ MORE    Take Action Fill the Plate with Your Message to Protect and Strengthen State Nutrition Programs! Now is the time for legislators to hear from you about the importance of protecting and strengthening key nutrition programs in our state budget. Please print out this "Placemat" template. The template lists our priorities in Olympia and gives you the space you need to write a personalized message. Partner Programs: Please print out at least 10 copies of this template and distribute it to your clients, volunteers and staff. (If printing color copies is too expensive, feel free to print copies in black and white.) Collect their completed messages and either send them to your legislators or return them to Christina at Northwest Harvest by Tuesday, May 27 so that we can deliver them to your legislators. If you want us to send you hard copies of the template to distribute, please email partners@northwestharvest.orgno later than this Thursday, May 16. Tip for our Partners for Sharing with Your Network: Set up a table at the end of your grocery line on your next distribution day. Have a volunteer available with a stack of our templates and a printout of this advocacy update so they can talk with customers about the importance of filling out one of these templates. Make sure that all requested information about an address and a personal message-even a short one-is completed on the template. If the customer needs an address, you can substitute the address of your program.  ACT NOW   Federal Level:    Today, Congress begins debate on a new five-year Farm Bill. Both the Senate and the House proposals that will be discussed in committee this week make deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps.) READ MORE Take Action Tell our Senators and your Congressional Representative that SNAP WORKS! Take a few minutes to think about a client, a family member, a friend, or perhaps yourself and how SNAP helped that person. Maybe SNAP helped that person while they did an AmeriCorps internship and now they are a successful advocate with a nonprofit program. Maybe SNAP helped their children have access to nutritious food so they could learn in school. Maybe SNAP helps the lines at your food bank doors stay manageable. After you've thought of your story about how SNAP works, pick up the phone or put the story in an email message to Senators Murray and Cantwell and your U.S. Representative. Just speak from the heart but be sure to tell them to vote NO on a Farm Bill that cuts SNAP because SNAP WORKS!  ACT NOW