Benefits/Economic Justice

Roughly 1 in 6 Massachusetts residents use SNAP to put food on the table.

Basic needs programs provide food security and income support to low-income individuals and families with children.

MLRI works to improve benefit programs, tackles systemic access barriers, and supports legal aid and social service advocates that serve low-income households.

Our economic justice team works to:

Ensure people with lived expertise are part of the policy debates that affect their lives.
Strengthen and protect public assistance programs to better meet the needs of very low-income families and individuals, both US citizens and immigrants.
Cut administrative burdens and remove other barriers so low-income people can access the programs they are eligible for.
Reform state and federal policies and practices that unfairly deny benefits to eligible people.
Collaborate with hundreds of partners, including food banks and food pantries, health care, and other community- based organizations, through leadership of the statewide SNAP Coalition and various legislative campaigns including the Lift Our Kids Coalition.