Patricia Baker
Senior Benefits Policy Advocate
617-357-0700 ext. 328
Patricia Baker joined MLRI’s Benefits Practice Group in 1983. As a Senior Policy Advocate at MLRI, Pat works at both the state and federal level on a range of legislative, administrative, and policy matters that affect low-income families, elders and persons with disabilities. Prior to joining MLRI, Pat was an advocate in Western Massachusetts Legal Services (now Community Legal Aid) from 1977 to 1983 where she focused on disability, unemployment, and public benefits cases.
Pat has authored and edited numerous publications, including the Food Stamp/SNAP Advocacy Guide as well as other MLRI Advocacy Guides involving cash assistance programs, immigrant eligibility issues and homeless rights, and co-authored and contributed to several national reports for the Food Research Action Center and Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Pat authored the "Denying Food and Shaming Children: Unpaid School Meal Policies in Massachusetts" in March 2018; co-authored the “Connecting Community College Students to SNAP” report with the Center for Law and Social Policy in April 2021; and co-authored the “Improving SNAP Access for Older Adults” report with MLRI Policy Advocate Vicky Negus.
Pat is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for her advocacy, including the 2020 Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren John Lepper Award, the 2019 Open Door Unsung Hero Award, the 2013 Dr. Raymond Wheeler/Senator Paul Wellstone Anti-Hunger Advocacy National Leadership Award, the 2014 Eos Foundation Changing the Equation Award, the 2009 Kit Clark Award, the 1997 Governor’s New American Appreciation Award, the 1995 National Lawyers Guild MA Chapter Legal Worker Award and many other awards.
Pat’s advocacy has contributed to a significant reversal of the state’s low food stamp/SNAP participation rate. Through her advocacy and leadership, Massachusetts has adopted state policy changes and federal options that have both removed access barriers and increased the value of monthly SNAP benefits. In the 1990’s, Pat was instrumental in securing state-funded cash and food benefits for legally present immigrants barred from federal benefits. In recent years, Pat was also the lead advocate who drafted and secured passage of legislation prohibiting school meal shaming in Massachusetts, Chapter 62 of the Acts of 2021. She was the lead advocate in drafting and securing passage of state budget language in both 2020 and 2021 which requires the state to allow Medicaid applicants to apply for SNAP at the same time. She led the charge to secure passage of Chapter 174 of the Acts of 2022, a state law that now requires the state to create a common application for SNAP and DTA cash assistance, health care, childcare and other state-administered needs-based benefits.
During 2022, Patr also successfully advocated with the MA Congressional Delegation to secure language in the United for Ukraine Act to secure federally funded SNAP and cash benefits to Ukrainian refugee families. Since December of 2022, she has been co-leading - with La Colaborativa of Chelsea - the Feeding Our Neighbors Campaign which seeks to restore state-funded food and cash assistance benefits to legally present immigrants barred from federal SNAP and TANF due to the 1996 Welfare Reform Law.