Officials in Springfield, Massachusetts are asking the Healey administration to give local restaurants another chance to take part in a pilot program involving food stamps.
Some 27 restaurants and food trucks were named last year when Governor Maura Healey’s administration announced who would be taking part in a “Restaurant Meals Program” pilot involving SNAP.
Selected to work with the Department of Transitional Assistance to become "federally certified SNAP restaurants," the venues would allow individuals with disabilities or experiencing homelessness to use SNAP benefits for reduced-price meal options. Households with adults over 60 can also take advantage.
Announced in June 2023 were mostly venues in the Boston-area, with only a handful in Western Massachusetts, including two in Springfield – Cedar’s Food Mart and MexiRico.
Over a year later, though, neither are included on a state list of "currently open" approved restaurants and food trucks.
With only one restaurant west of Worcester mentioned, Cocina Lupita in Greenfield, officials in Springfield are looking to change that.
“We strongly urge the administration to reopen up the process, so that more restaurants in the City of Springfield can benefit from this program,” said Ward 5 City Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce, reading from a resolution drafted for the state house.
Click-Bruce said Monday that over the past month, he and his team had been reaching out to various eateries in Springfield to gauge interest.
Naming several vendors who are on board, including Olympic Deli and AC Produce, he says the pilot program opens up food options for locals while potentially boosting the local economy.
Currently, vendors interested in taking part in the RMP are asked to check back in 2025 for updates when consulting the state website.
The move to ask the governor to open the application process back up found immediate support on the council, including from Ward 6 Councilor Victor Davila
“I think of the food deserts that we have here in the city - this is just not a program to give people free meals on tax money,” he said. “I see this, [Council President Mike Fenton], as food justice, so everybody can have a proper, nutritional hot meal. I am very enthusiastic about this program. I openly urge our beloved governor to open this program up, quickly.”
The resolution ended up being passed unanimously during one of the few city council meetings of the summer, but not before an amendment from Councilor at Large Tracye Whitfield.
In addition to requesting data on how the pilot program is doing so far, Whitfield put forward new language on the resolution – requesting the groups taking part in the pilot include “all families that use SNAP benefits.”
Calls for more information also came from Ward 8 Councilor Zaida Govan, who mentioned that SNAP recipients are also currently able to receive “free farmers market dollars,” though from what she understood, that program is underutilized.
“I'm not sure if it's because of advertising or if people can't get to a farmers market – I don't know,” Govan said. “This is a good idea to expand … people's ability to access food, and I agree, expanding it to different restaurants. I think eventually the governor's idea is to maybe make all restaurants eligible for this, which would be great, except for like McDonald's and stuff like that.”
