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Salem School Committee backs students' call to restore $60 million for state food‑assistance program
Summary
Eighth‑grade students urged the School Committee to ask state senators to keep MEFAP funding at $60 million; the committee voted to send a resolution endorsing the House figure and the chair said she will forward the correspondence to Senator Lovely.
Students from Miss Joll's eighth‑grade civics class told the Salem School Committee on May 11 that recent state and federal cuts are straining local food banks and asked the committee to urge the Massachusetts Senate to adopt a $60,000,000 funding level for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP) that the House had passed.
The students described interviews with the Salem Food Pantry’s director and said the pantry serves a large share of North Shore families. “We want the $60,000,000 budget that the house passed to go through,” one student told the committee, and asked the committee to draft a resolution to the Senate in support.
Committee members discussed timing and the legislative calendar. Member Miranda moved to endorse the students' request and Member Hoffman seconded. The committee conducted a roll‑call vote by name: Member Miranda — yes; Member Baez — yes; Member Hoffman — yes; Member Manning — remote/muted (no recorded vote); Chair — yes. The chair announced the resolution passes and said she will draft a letter and send it to Senator Lovely on behalf of the School Committee and provide the students' class with a copy.
Committee members and an invited guest — a representative covering the students' state delegation — urged prompt electronic transmission because budget amendments were being filed in the Senate that week. Students and committee members cited figures the students had compiled about demand on food banks and federal and state funding changes; those figures were presented by the students as findings from their research and interviews with local stakeholders.
The committee took no fiscal action itself; the vote was to authorize and send a resolution urging the Senate to adopt the higher MEFAP line in the state budget.
What happens next: the chair will convert the approved motion into a formal letter and send it to Senator Lovely, and the committee said it would share that correspondence with the students' class.
