Fight for Our Food Stamps!
The Nonviolent Medicaid Army is a growing militant force of poor and dispossessed working class people united across race, region, and religion who are on or unjustly excluded from Medicaid. We’re made up of people who know from our life experience that we need to unite to have a voice. No one else is going to advocate for us as effectively as we will for ourselves. We have the intelligence, creativity, and survival skills to make a way out of no way. The work requirements for SNAP jeopardize food security for millions of us. This toolkit will help us safeguard, unite, and organize our class through this current period.
Right now there are two different attacks happening on SNAP – the first is the immediate threat of benefits not being paid in November due to the federal government shutdown.
The second is the longer term problem of new work requirements after the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill for Billionaires, which could limit food stamps to 3 months every 3 years. These changes have already taken effect and the first 3 month period will be over on November 30th, which is why we have to act NOW.
Click here to read more and learn how you can take action.
13th Annual Membership Assembly Highlights
The 13th Annual Membership Assembly kicked off in sunny State College, Pennsylvania, on October 17th, 2025. This was Put People First! PA’s largest Membership Assembly to date with over 160 adults and 40 youth in person as well as virtual participants attending on zoom. A third of those in the room were leaders from our broader network, the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, which made this weekend not only a crucial moment for our organizing in Pennsylvania but for our whole network, as we continue to build politically independent, poverty abolitionist movement led by the poor and dispossessed united across all lines of division.
The Membership Assembly is a key moment every year where a huge number of people experience first hand the Community Agreement “Everyone is responsible for the success of the space.” From housing to A/V to childcare, the weekend was planned by a 19 member team, who in turn incorporated nearly all participants at the Assembly to support in carrying out these divisions of labor over the weekend.
Assembly content kicked off with a session on Hospital Closures & the Political Economy of Healthcare. This was followed by workshops on Political Storytelling, People’s Clinics, Medicaid Sign-ups and Appeals and Song leading. Saturday night ended as it always does with Arts & Culture Night with nearly 50 participants of all ages sharing stories, songs, visual art, poetry, comedy and more.
Click here to read more about the weekend or see the full photo report back here!
Donate to Support Court Fees for the #Crozer8
On September 8, 2025, eight members of Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) held a peaceful sit-in in the lobby of the shuttered Crozer-Chester hospital, demanding that the county take back the hospital from Wall Street.
Outside, over 50 healthcare workers, local residents, and other PPF-PA members rallied in support. Inside, the “Crozer 8” prayed, sang, and shared testimonies about the devastation of the hospital closures, gathered from months of outreach in the community.
Within minutes, police were called, and after about 35 minutes they led the Crozer 8 out in handcuffs. We, the united poor demanding what we need to live, were arrested; Prospect Medical Holdings, and other entities that cause mass death and suffering by profiting off of our sickness and running hospitals into the ground, have yet to face consequences.
The Crozer 8 were criminally charged with “defiant trespass,” a third degree misdemeanor. Seven of our members were released on unsecured bail, while one member was forced to pay the maximum possible bail, $2500, in order to be released. All of the 8 are expecting to pay court fees of $300 each ($2400 total) as we go through the legal process.
As a politically-independent organization of the poor, with a small budget that comes from grassroots fundraising, we’re asking for your support in covering these costs.
For more information about the preliminary hearing and action, read this powerful article by Marcelle Martin, a local Quaker who attended the hearing in solidarity.
November Saturday School of Struggle:
Live from the VWC Membership Assembly
Join us for the November 2025 Saturday School of Struggle this Saturday, November 8th at **SPECIAL TIME** 1:30 pm ET (90 minutes).
This month we’ll be Live from the Vermont Workers Center’s Membership Assembly with the topic of Uniting the Poor Through the Fight for Our Health: Stories from the Front Lines!
Register here: https://bit.ly/NVMANov2025SSoS
The hybrid session for November’s Saturday School of Struggle will feature a discussion with leaders in Vermont and around the country on organizing in this moment, what’s on the horizon, and how we’re uniting the poor through the fight for our health!
Healthcare Rights Committee Meetings
Put People First! PA is organized into five regions: Southeast, Southwest, Central-Appalachia, South Central and Northeast. In each of these regions, members participate in twice a month meetings held by phone and online, organized around our healthcare struggles. If you’re new to Put People First! PA, attend a monthly Statewide Call or Saturday School or contact any of the Coordinators listed here to learn more.
- Media & Communications, Medicaid Cut Offs Organizing Drive, Nonviolent Medicaid Army, SNAP, Statewide Membership Assembly
- crozer-chester, crozer8, Food Stamps, membership assembly, saturday school, snap, Vermont Workers Center
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[…] Nonviolent Medicaid Army in 12 states, and expanding our Medicaid Cut-offs Organizing Drive with a new toolkit to assert our welfare rights in the face of SNAP cuts and work requirements. As the economic crisis […]