It's important that people get the daily nutrients they need from fresh vegetables and fruits.
One way local produce gets onto the table for many living in western Massachusetts is a state initiative called the Healthy Incentives Program, or HIP. That’s been a monthly stipend, amounting to up to $80, that comes in each month on top of regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The money can be used exclusively to purchase from farmers at markets, farm stands and through CSA farm shares.
To learn more about this development, we checked in with Claire Morenon of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, a food and agriculture nonprofit in western Mass.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Starting December 1, that HIP allotment for all will be cut back to $20 across the board. The timing of this news for many could not be worse. What are you hearing and how did we get here?
Claire Morenon, CISA: So, the previous allotment for HIP depended on household size, and is up to $80 a month. And so, it means that there's going to be a flat level for everybody who receives the program, which is everyone who receives SNAP benefits.
This is happening because the state budget allotted for $15 million for HIP this year, which is not enough to last throughout the entire fiscal year with the existing monthly cap. And so DTA (Department of Transitional Assistance) and MDAR (Department of Agricultural Resources) just announced that in December they're going to be capping everybody at $20 a month to keep the program going throughout the entire year.
So, there's a certain logic to it. The challenge is, as you alluded to, this is happening right before the holidays. So, for families who have come to rely on this benefit in order to feed themselves healthy, nutritious food, it's going to be a serious reduction in their grocery dollars.
And it also means for farmers who are just wrapping up their growing seasons now, who have planted and harvested crops so that they can meet this market throughout the year, it will be a really steep reduction in the amount of money that they can earn as a result of participating in the program.
The current fiscal year budget, built by the governor, had funded this program at $25 million, and lawmakers trimmed that amount back by $10 million. Is there a chance that this was an oversight, and that funding could be built back into a supplemental budget at some point in the future?
Yes. Our hope is certainly that the state is going to correct this and make sure that the program is funded so that it can continue to run, as people have come to expect throughout the entire year.
We're encouraging people to call the governor's office, to call legislative leadership and to advocate for this program. And hopefully an additional $10 million can be included in a future supplemental budget so that either this reduction can be limited in terms of how long it runs for, or maybe even not happen at all.
Something that we've heard from many of the farms that we work with is that whenever there's a change to a program like this, there is a huge knock to the amount of trust that people who use it have in the program. And getting people back into the habit and back into a feeling of security is a really, really slow process.
It's been years that CISA, your organization, has been talking about HIP, trying to get people actively using it.
Yes. The program is really important to many people. And it's also underutilized because a lot of people don't even know that it exists. Anyone who gets SNAP on their EBT card automatically gets HIP, and it functions as an instant rebate when people use their card at participating local farms and farmers markets.
There are a lot of communication barriers in terms getting the message out about a program like this. And so, at CISA, we work with farms and farmers markets and CSAs to make sure that they can communicate clearly about the program. And we maintain up-to-date information for SNAP users so that they can find out where they can receive their benefit and make sure that people understand how it works.
I'm sure there's also going to be confusion, too, with all of this talk about this future cut to HIP, because it actually hasn't happened yet.
Yes, we definitely want SNAP users to know that this is coming so that they can plan. And we want vendors to know so that they can make their plans, too.
But it's not scheduled to start until December. So, for the month of October and for the month of November, SNAP users can still receive their full benefit of up to $80 per month, depending on household size.
Disclosure: CISA is an underwriter on NEPM. That’s not a factor in how NEPM News covers the organization.
