Oregon is in a hunger crisis. In 2025, Congress made the largest cuts to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) in history. With grocery prices on the rise and hundreds of thousands likely to lose their Medicaid benefits, things aren’t likely to improve without bold policy action.
Immigrant Oregonians
Older adults
Parents of teenagers
Rural communities
Unhoused families
Former foster youth
Veterans
The Food for All Oregonians coalition is advocating for the Anti-Hunger Package: policies that will feed millions of Oregonians and work to end hunger at its roots.
Ensure all K-12 students have access to free breakfast and lunch at school
Help more Oregonians afford food through expanded cash assistance
Ensure our statewide free food assistance network is funded to meet the rising need
Protect health coverage for immigrant Oregonians
Fund these initiatives through revenue reforms that are equitable and sufficient
Sharing our stories is an important part of educating policymakers and our communities. We appreciate you considering sharing your story.
There will be many opportunities to share your story throughout the 2027 legislative session, from providing verbal or written testimony at public hearings, and/or in-district town halls, and/or roadshows. Food for All Oregonians will also uplift stories via email, social media and with the media to encourage our communities to take action and contact their legislators.
You alone have the right to decide whether to share your story.
You control how much of your story you share and what you talk about.
You can decide in what way you share your story. Options may include a written account, a media interview, appearing in a video or testifying in person in front of legislators, among other possibilities.
If you have a story from a friend or family member you would like to share, you are welcome to do so! But please ask for their consent before doing so.
Please note that when you submit a letter of testimony, it becomes part of the public record and is posted to the Oregon Legislative Website (OLIS). Anyone, at any time, can go on this website and read written testimony or watch the recorded verbal testimony.
Your story may be edited by us at our discretion, not to alter the meaning of your words, but for length or clarity or to submit to the appropriate legislative committee.
If you provide your consent to submit your story for testimony, we will submit it on your behalf to the Oregon legislative website. We may use some, all or none of your testimony at our discretion.
If you'd like to submit your testimony directly to the Oregon Legislative Website (OLIS) and would like additional support, please email advocacy@oregonfoodbank.org.
The most effective thing you can do is to make a personal case for why you support the 2027 Anti-Hunger Package. We suggest you submit a personal story for each of the items on the Anti-Hunger Package separately. You can find talking points below.
School Meals for All will ensure free meals are offered to all K-12 students. Public schools will serve meals at no cost to every student, eliminating stigma and ensuring access to nourishing meals at school.
In an affordability crisis, school meals are a critical way we can support families. More and more families are struggling to make ends meet. This can save Oregon families over $1,400 per student each year.
Reducing stigma and bullying around school meal access helps low‑income students feel safer and more included, allowing them to focus on learning rather than social pressure. No-cost meal programs reduce suspensions at a rate comparable to restorative justice programs.
This will increase the quality of school meals. Because most schools don’t receive the full reimbursement rate for each meal, districts often have to make trade-offs relating to the ability to purchase high-quality ingredients. One district recently had to stop cooking meals from scratch because of lack of funding.
The most effective way to support low-and moderate income families afford life’s necessities like food and rent is through direct cash assistance.
The $1,050 per child Oregon Kids Credit is wonderful for families currently receiving it. But funding currently limits eligibility to families in deep poverty with kids under the age of 6, excluding other low-income families outside the deep poverty threshold.
Oregon should significantly expand the Oregon Kids’ Credit by making it available to more kids and families.
Visits to Oregon’s food assistance network increased by over 50% from 2023-2025, and this is before H.R. 1 caused nearly 100,000 Oregonians to lose SNAP.
Oregon should increase support for community-level responses to hunger, like funding for food purchasing and the Oregon Hunger Response Fund (OHRF) to ensure that 1,200 community-based food assistance sites across the state can support people in our communities
Immigrant Oregonians are our neighbors, coworkers, classmates and community leaders. They are teachers, farmworkers, nurses, small business owners and parents raising the next generation of Oregonians.
Many have called this state home for decades. They’ve built lives, contributed to our economy, enriched our culture and shaped the communities we all live in.
When we talk about Oregon’s future, we must include all Oregonians regardless of where they were born. Because Oregon isn’t just a place; it’s the people who make it strong.
In Oregon, we believe in caring for one another and protecting our communities from those who seek to divide us.
Talk about family members, friends or people you know who may be impacted by one of the policies on the Anti-Hunger Package.
Did you ever have school meal debt or skip a meal at school because you didn’t have enough money?
Do you volunteer at a food pantry and you’ve run out of food?
How would this policy benefit the lives of Oregonians?
What impacts are you seeing from cuts to SNAP since the passage of H.R. 1?
Why should Oregon address the hunger crisis?
Community Voices
Community Voices
Community Voices
