Empowering You January 2019 Newsetter

JANUARY 2019 NEWSLETTER
Behind the scenes
progress
By AJ Bockelman, Assistant Director
You don’t typically hear too much
from me, and that is by design! In
general, my role is to help keep the
administrative side of the
organization moving along. With
our re-orientation of the focus
areas in 2018, I wanted to take a
moment and update you on how
we are continuing to evolve to
define what it means to be an
advocacy organization in this day
and age.
Within just a few weeks, we will be
launching our new website. Earlier
we upgraded our back-end system
for online advocacy efforts, events
management, and donations. Our
new site will integrate more
robust elements from that
system and keep you up to
date on current efforts where
we need your help!
We also hope to bring on a new
position in 2019 – a
Communications Director. A more
unified and strategic
communications plan will allow us
to interact more online across the
state, helping to bridge the urban/
rural divide, and hopefully, bring
more of you to interact with your
legislators in person. The
Communications position is
designed to create a series of
actions for our volunteers and
donors to complete online, and
then ideally, join us for more inperson
activities at the Capitol and
within your own home districts.
These are just two small things we
know will make a big difference in
2019 and beyond. If you have any
ideas or would like to see more of
something, drop me a line at
AJ@EmpowerMissouri.org.
Cont’d from p 4
the existing three-month-time-limit.
Data from the Missouri Department
of Social Services (February 15,
2018) showed that 78,610
Missourians had lost food
assistance after the three-monthtime-limit
and waiver ban was
implemented in Missouri. This
caused our state to lose
$12,627,898 monthly in SNAP
benefits, dollars spent in our local
grocery stores, supporting local
economies, while reducing hunger.
Punishing workers who are
struggling to find work by taking
away their food assistance does
not help them secure a higher
wage job with more hours or find
work faster. We know how harmful
this proposal is, because Missouri
has already experimented with it.
Missouri should choose a better
path when the waiver ban expires
on January 1, and the Trump
administration should respect the
bipartisan legislative process that
rejected these kinds of harsh
changes to SNAP. This change
would truly increase hunger without
doing a single thing to create or
sustain employment opportunities.
In Closing
In the words of the old spiritual,
“Children, don’t grow weary.” Yes,
it is tiring to speak out time and
time again for access to food, one
of the most basic human needs.
But as long as there is a threat of
increased hunger — to our
neighbors, for some of us, to
ourselves— we must speak
together for compassionate and
effective social policy. No one
benefits from hunger. Food
assistance improves health
outcomes, boosts school success,
and helps workers with low-wages
sustain their jobs. It brings money
into the Missouri economy and
especially is important in Missouri’s
rural counties. Let us commit to
work together to defeat the
punishment-based proposals in the
Missouri General Assembly and at
the USDA. Participate in our
“Under the Dome and Across the
State” briefings for advocates,
twice per month February until mid-
May for timely calls to action.
jeanette@empowermissouri.org
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