U.S. Poverty Weekly Update August 14, 2018

U.S. Poverty Campaigns

Weekly Update | August 14, 2018

“s we approach back-to-school time, there are many children across the state who are looking forward to school. That's because it's a time where they will get food again.”

– RESULTS St. Louis volunteer Sarah Miller in an August 8 letter to the editor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Quick Media Action: Remind Members of Congress to Protect SNAP in the Final Farm Bill

Got Two Minutes? Urge Your Action Networks to Send an E-mail about Protecting SNAP

The Senate has returned to DC, while House members are still out on recess. We won’t see a final farm bill before September, so this is a good time to remind senators and representatives about protecting SNAP. Senate leaders are facing increased pressure to compromise with House members on new work requirements for SNAP. We cannot let that happen. Even if partial changes from the House bill make it into the final farm bill, it could have long-lasting, harmful effects on families receiving SNAP. New data shows that 1 in 5 workers ages 18-59 without children under the age of 6 could lose SNAP benefits if new work penalties in the House bill become law.

Many of you have been in regular contact with aides about this issue, and we thank you – keep it up! It is also important that members of Congress hear from many voices on this issue and your local action networks can fill that role.

TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to contact your local Action Networks and tell them to e-mail their members of Congress about protecting SNAP. Let them know that lawmakers need to hear from them now. If you’re not sure what to say, cut and paste the paragraph below into an e-mail or social media post:

Dear RESULTS friends,

We need your help. Congress is edging closer to a final farm bill which could have a far-reaching impact for millions of low-income Americans. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) helps put food on the table for more than 40 million people each month. Yet, House members are using the farm bill to radically change SNAP by imposing strict time limits on people receiving SNAP while looking for work. These changes could result in millions of people, many of them families with children, losing all or part of the SNAP benefits. Fortunately, the Senate has passed a much more reasonable and bipartisan bill that protects SNAP while also investing in smart policies that help people find work.

Would you take two minutes today to send an e-mail to your representatives and senators urging them to follow the Senate’s lead and pass a final farm bill that is bipartisan and protects SNAP? Send your e-mail using this alert today. Millions of hungry families need your help – thank you for taking action.

Got Ten Minutes? Look for Events to Attend and Read Up While You Wait (August Action)

We continue our push this month to get in front of lawmakers in face-to-face meetings and town halls. We want to push lawmakers to tell House and Senate leaders that they will only support a farm bill that is bipartisan and protects SNAP. House members are still on recess and thus available for meetings and events.

If your congressional offices are slow to respond to your request, keep politely pushing for meetings (and checking back in about town halls) but also use this time to gear up for our work in the fall and beyond.

• Read our background packets on SNAP and housing. These were created for the RESULTS International Conference but are meant as resources for all our volunteers, whether you are lobbying in DC or at home. They provide an excellent overview of these important issues and are excellent tools in your lobbying work.
• Read the August 2018 U.S. Poverty Action and our U.S. Poverty Laser Talks to practice speaking on the issues. This will help familiarize yourself with the issues so when you do have the chance to talk about them, you’ll be ahead of the game.
• Review our current U.S. Poverty requests. You’ll want to have these requests handy to give to lawmakers or their staff in meetings and events you attend.

TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to continue pushing for meetings with your representatives and senators when they are home. Use our online request to send e-mails or make a call to your House and Senate schedulers. Be sure to ask about town halls and check www.townhallproject.com for events as well. While you wait for meetings or events, review the current materials available to prepare yourself. Our 2018 Conference Resources page has legislative background packets, leave behinds, Laser Talks, PowerPoints, and other materials to help you. If you cannot secure a meeting this month, ask for time when they are next home. Once you get a meeting or town hall in your calendar, please contact Jos Linn ASAP to set up a lobby prep call to get you ready.

Got Twenty Minutes? Gear Up for Election Work this Fall (August Action)

On last Saturday’s Joint U.S. and Global Poverty National Webinar, volunteers got a preview and training on one of our main focus areas this fall – the 2018 midterm elections. This election is shaping up to be one of the most closely-watched, off-year elections. We we want to use it to shape the debate about poverty in America. The work to shape the agenda for the next Congress begins now. Candidates, whether they are existing members of Congress running for re-election or newcomers to the stage, will not be able to ignore the importance of protecting basic health, nutrition, and education assistance if they hear it over and over again from voters. Candidates cannot ignore the unpopularity of tax cuts for the wealthy if they hear it over and over again from voters. Candidates cannot ignore the growing housing crisis in the U.S. if they hear it over and over again from voters.

To inspire you as to what is possible, watch this local TV news segment in Virginia last night featuring RESULTS Expert on Poverty Pamela Covington. Pamela does exactly what we hope everyone will be doing from now through the election – attending a local town hall with her member of Congress to ask a question and then leveraging other resources at the event (in this case, the media) to reinforce her message. Bravo!

TAKE ACTION: At your RESULTS group meetings this month, take twenty minutes to use what you learned on Saturday’s webinar to plan what your group will do to make ending poverty a priority in this year’s election. Use the excellent tools that Carly Pildis shared on the webinar about map out your strategy to engage candidates (webinar recording and slides can be found here). Also, visit our new Elections page to find other candidate engagement resources, including a sign up form to get personalized coaching from Carly and our Candidate Tracker to report what happens at these events.* If you have additional questions, please contact Jos Linn.

*Report all interactions at town halls and public events in the new Candidate Tracker, including events with current members of Congress. Sit-down meetings with members of Congress should still be reported in the RESULTS Lobby Report Form.

Quick News

New Activist Orientation Webinar This Week and Next. If you’re new to RESULTS or want to become a RESULTS advocate, please join us for our New Advocate Orientation! During this 60-minute live webinar, you'll interact with RESULTS staff and other new volunteers, learn more about our advocacy model and issues, and get information on how to take action and get connected locally. The webinar is tomorrow, August 15 at 8:30 pm ET and again Friday, August 24 at 1:00 pm ET. Please complete the RESULTS New Advocate Welcome first (here). At the end, you'll be given a link to sign up for an orientation. Contact Amanda Beals if you have any questions ([email protected]).  

RESULTS Featured on Local News Station in San Francisco. Watch RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter and RESULTS Board Member Pankaj Agarwal being interviewed on a local San Francisco TV station this weekend about RESULTS and the importance of anti-poverty advocacy. Not only is the interview great, how it happened is inspiring and educational. Using their recent trip to the International Conference as a hook, Pankaj asked a contact at the news station for an introduction to a producer. Pankaj pitched the producer his idea for an interview, which resulted in this on-air segment. Congratulations, RESULTS San Francisco! If you’d to try this yourself, use our Conference media guide to get started.

Please Finish Your Lobby Reports. This Friday marks one month from when volunteers were on Capitol Hill for Advocacy Day at the 2018 RESULTS International Conference. We appreciate everyone who has filled out lobby reports about what happened in their lobby meetings that day. But we’re still missing a few. Use this Friday as your personal deadline to complete all your lobby reports from the Conference using our Lobby Report Form.

Please Complete the Conference Survey by August 18. This is your last chance to share your feedback about this year’s International Conference using the Conference Survey. We will close the survey this Saturday, August 18.

Upcoming Events

Go to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website.

Upcoming U.S. Poverty staff time off: Meredith Dodson, August 4-19. Jos Linn, August 25-September 3.

House Recess, July 30-September 3. Use our online request to schedule meetings now.

RESULTS New Advocate Orientation, Wednesday, August 15 at 8:30 pm ET. Learn more here.

U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Tuesday, August 21 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/324294681 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, Meeting ID: 324 294 681.

RESULTS New Advocate Orientation, Friday, August 24 at 1:00 pm ET. Learn more here.

Labor Day, Monday, September 3. All RESULTS offices closed.

RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Tuesday, September 4 at 8:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/873308801 or dial (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, Meeting ID: 873 308 801.

Other Resources

Get Your RESULTS Promo Materials. If you need banners, pens, stickers, or business cards for your local RESULTS work, fill out our Materials Order Form and we’ll send them to you.

Got a Question for the RESULTS Board? If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail Steven McGee at [email protected]. View published Board minutes on the RESULTS website, as well as our Annual Reports.

Please Fill Out the Lobby Report Form. After any lobby meeting, please fill out the RESULTS Lobby Report Form to let us know how it went. When you have a meeting where both U.S. and global poverty issues are discussed, please fill it out twice.