Put People First! PA & Nonviolent Medicaid Army SNAP Organizing Toolkit

Put People First! PA & Nonviolent Medicaid Army SNAP Organizing Toolkit

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.

We know that there will be many different types of groups responding to the SNAP cuts. Nonprofits may approach this moment as an opportunity to provide temporary social services for our class. Charities will follow a similar top-down approach. The two major political parties will seek to take advantage of the righteous anger of the poor, making false promises in order to funnel us back into support of the system. 

In contrast, the Nonviolent Medicaid Army will politicize these attacks and organize people through learning and teaching how to maintain access to SNAP as a Project of Survival. The Medicaid Cut-offs Organizing Drive, which began in 2023, employs tactics that help people apply for and keep their welfare benefits; the plan outlined below is an outgrowth of this drive, which continues the historical tradition of organizing at the point of survival. Our inspiration is the Johnnie Tillmon model of the poor organizing the poor. Johnnie Tillmon was one of the founders of the welfare rights movement and former chairperson of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO). 

This is how we, the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, will organize through these attacks:

  • We will train our leaders to have organizing conversations around the work requirements coming to SNAP and teach about the exemptions to the work requirements.
  • We will engage our neighbors, friends, and family in the wake of these attacks to create permanently organized communities who are ready to defend one another at the Welfare Office.
  • We will multiply ourselves by encouraging everyone who we help to join our fighting organization of the poor. 
  • We will listen to our base and their ideas and help to create the conditions for them to take action in ways that build their clarity, commitment, competence and connectedness. 

The new work requirements mandate that everyone must work at least 20 hours per week to qualify for SNAP, but there are exemptions to this. 

You are exempt from work requirements in Pennsylvania* if you are:

Under 18 years old or over 65 years oldReceiving unemployment compensation
A parent with kids under 14 years oldReturning to work within 60 days
PregnantIn school or job training 20 hrs/week 
Disabled (receiving SSI, SSD)Doing community service 20 hrs/week
Experiencing homelessnessTaking care of a sick family member
Enrolled in a drug or mental health treatment programMedical Exemption: living with a health condition that makes it hard to work

*There is some variation in exemptions across different states, but they are similar. Please check the specifics for your own state.

Our organizing drive will be centered around letting the welfare office know that we meet one of these exemptions – especially the Medical exemption, taking care of a sick family member, or experiencing homelessness.

A Medical Exemption is a form you get signed by a doctor (or any other healthcare worker like a psychologist, physical therapist, nurse practitioner, social worker, etc.) that states you are unable to work as much because you have a health condition. You need to send this form to the welfare office. The medical condition does not need to meet the Social Security requirements for having Disability, and you can still work and have a job even with a Medical Exemption. You can get a Medical Exemption for common and even temporary health conditions like depression, anxiety, arthritis, etc. 

If someone is taking care of a sick family member or experiencing homelessness, they need to reach out to their case worker at the welfare office. This is another opportunity to connect with our base and help them through this process. 

The Medical Exemption option gives us an opportunity to organize people into our Healthcare Is A Human Right campaign. As the organizer, you will need to help someone get a doctor’s note. Does the person have a doctor already? Do they have a document that lists their diagnosis? Where is their nearest Free Health Clinic? How will they print the document and get it to the welfare office? Do you know the email for the welfare office where they can upload it? It’s very possible to get a healthcare worker to sign off on having a medical condition, but this system criminalizes our survival and intentionally makes the process difficult. We can organize a person through this process by supporting them to not give up, and struggling alongside them because we all deserve healthcare and food. 

Before even helping someone get a doctor’s note to the welfare office, we have to meet the people who are impacted by these changes to SNAP. Here are a few ways to do that: 

1: Reach out to your list of contacts and people in the New Member Enlistment Process 

Text / call: 

Hello ***, this is _____ from the Put People First! PA and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army and we connected this past summer at ______. How are you?

I am reaching out to you to see if you or someone you know may be affected by the new SNAP (food stamp) work requirements. Have you heard about this?   

If they say yes – we can ask if they have been able to submit the paperwork to keep their SNAP benefits If If they say yes, we can let them know we need their help to reach out to other people, ask if they want to be part of our organizing drive around SNAP work requirements.

If they say No – ask them if they are aware of the new work requirements and how to get exempt from them. Offer to send them the link for the paperwork or if they have the ability to arrange an in person meeting. After we have assisted them, let them know we need their help to reach out to other people, ask if they want to be part of our organizing drive to fight for SNAP for everyone.

2: Bring into Projects of Survival or doorknocking 

We can approach this current crisis with a Project of Survival that puts us in regular contact with people who are on or unfairly excluded from food stamps. We can meet many people at our local food banks or other food resource centers. Through partnership, we can use these spaces to both meet people’s needs by sharing information about the SNAP changes and how to keep benefits, while also agitating about the crisis we are in with food and other basic needs, and panning for gold. In addition to a sign-in sheet to capture contact information for follow-up, we should bring copies of the SNAP flyer. Engage folks in line with organizing conversations. Encourage folks to fill out the form linked on the flyer so that we can follow up with them.

This can also be done as a doorknocking in neighborhoods where we know we will meet our base. 

3. Social Media: Share the graphic along with Google form.

SNAP cuts and the Government shutdown

The current federal government shutdown may cause SNAP payments to be frozen in the month of November. This means that people will not get their food stamps paid out for an entire month. People will go hungry because of this, and we can expect movement from both our base in reaction and the liberal/nonprofit wing of the state that will aim to capture and neutralize the poor moving towards power and political independence. 

There are opportunities to organize around the government shutdown, such as:

  • Providing food at our meetings through the month of November (and beyond)
  • Checking in with all of our members, mobilizers and new contacts about how they are doing, what they can offer and what they need to get through the month. Connect folks to food resources while politicizing what is happening and having organizing conversations. 
  • Supporting members and contacts to get to food pantries or community meals (providing rides, food drop-offs)
  • Going to food banks and pantries to hold People’s Clinics/have organizing conversations, expecting a greater mass of people to visit 

Who are we? The Medicaid Army!!

Leave a Reply