Neal, McGovern visit Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen to address food insecurity

Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry Executive Director Kim Caisse (middle) talks to U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (left) and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (right) about work her organization does to help fight food insecurity.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet

CHICOPEE — With food insecurity rapidly increasing across America, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal joined U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern for a visit to Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry to highlight the impact of President Donald Trump’s cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

A few weeks ago, McGovern launched the “End Hunger Now” tour to travel to every corner of commonwealth to talk about how the SNAP cuts are affecting its communities, shine a light on organizations like Lorraine’s making a difference, and explain how they are working to fix the problems.

During the visit to the Chicopee soup kitchen, Neal and McGovern joined Kim Caisse, executive director of Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry, to help with food distribution and take a tour of the pantry. They also spoke directly to clients about how cuts to federal nutrition programs and high food costs impact access to nutritious food.

Also present at the event were state Sen. Adam Gomez, state Rep. Shirley Arriaga, Chicopee Mayor John Vieau and Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Andrew Morehouse.

“Nobody, nobody in the richest country in the history of the world should go hungry,” McGovern said. “I am grateful to the state legislative leaders for what they are doing in the state house, along with our governor, but the state cannot make up the difference of these federal cuts. The federal government needs to reverse these terrible cuts in SNAP and other nutrition programs.”

McGovern, who said he is a lifelong champion for ending hunger, stated, “I can tell you right now, we are going in the wrong direction.

Nearly 100,000 people in this state are at risk of losing food assistance because this president and House Republicans passed their big, ugly bill.”

The passing of the bill “stole” nearly $200 billion in food assistance, according to McGovern, the largest cut to food assistance in American history.

“That means stealing food assistance from 42 million people who rely on SNAP,” McGovern said. “That’s 42 million kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities, veterans and working families, and they did so they could give a tax break to multi-millionaires and billionaires, and I find that shameful.”

McGovern said that talking to various organizations like Lorraine’s has confirmed what they feared would happen when Republicans took over, which is, “that poverty in America would get worse, hunger would get worse.”

Caisse, who got emotional at the end of the visit, talked about the work that Lorraine’s does and the people they serve. Lorraine’s serves the Chicopee community and beyond with pantry and meal services.

They provide over 1,00 meals a week for dinner, Monday through Friday, as well as their pantry that is available to the community. Caisse said there are over 300 families a week who visit the pantry. That doesn’t account for family size; it accounts for the head of the household picking up the food.

“Those numbers are staggering, Caisse stated. “During the shutdown of SNAP benefits, our numbers were almost tripled. We had over 80 people a day just standing in here, just waiting to get food because they didn’t know where their food was going to come from, not having their SNAP benefits.”

Although he applauded the work and results of Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry, McGovern said, “We also know that charity alone cannot solve the hunger crisis. We need a strong, federal safety net. We live in the richest country in the history of the world, and we ought to be ashamed that we have hungry kids that will go to school on Mondays. We ought to be ashamed that we have veterans who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.”

McGovern said he and Neal will “fight like hell” to reverse the cuts to food assistance, particularly by backing a farm bill that is scheduled for discussion next month.

“All that talk about the big, beautiful bill, they’ve even changed the name of the big, beautiful bill,” Neal said. “They know how badly it’s gone down in terms of messaging. They’ve come up with a new name for this legislation, but you’re really going to feel this next fall after the November elections, because it was targeted to get past the election cycle; that was it. A lot of the problems that we’re witnessing, they really kick in after the election. That was purposely done in the Ways and Means Committee by the majority because they didn’t want people to understand or comprehend how substantial these cuts are going to be.”