Food For All Oregonians Bill Moves Forward For Young Children

A bill to expand SNAP-like benefits to young and elderly Oregonians, regardless of immigration status, advanced in the Oregon Senate – but with an amendment specifying it would apply only to children aged six and younger.

Senate Bill 611 would create the state-managed and funded Food for All Oregonians program in the Department of Human Services to provide nutrition assistance to young children who would normally be eligible for SNAP if immigration status was not a consideration. 

“Our mission is to end hunger and its root causes,” Ivan Hernandez of the Oregon Food Bank told The Skanner.

“What that means is we’re not going to end hunger by just feeding people today, we also have to work with the systems that cause people to be hungry in the first place – poverty, and we also know that there are systems that have excluded some folks from food assistance due to anti-immigrant and racist policies. One of those at the federal level is the SNAP program.”

Increasing Need

Chief sponsor Sen. Wlnsvey Campos (D-Aloha) testified more than 62,000 Oregonians are denied federal food assistance due to their immigration status. 

“It isn’t just a gap in services, it’s a deep systemic shortcoming that leaves tens of thousands of families vulnerable to food insecurity, despite their vital contributions to our state,” Campos said. 

Oregon Food Bank President Andrea Williams reported that immigrants residing in Oregon, both documented and undocumented, contribute $5.6 billion annually in taxes, “yet thousands are excluded from critical food assistance or SNAP, our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program.”

Meanwhile, more Oregonians are turning to community food banks even as federal-level funding has been cut. The Oregon Food Bank reported experiencing a 31% increase in need. 

“Emergency food systems were never meant to be a substitute for inclusive solutions,” Campos said. 

The Oregon Food Bank does not ask about the immigration status of those it serves. 

“We know that 1 in 6 kids in Oregon are facing hunger, and we also know that there have been federal cuts that have impacted the food supply,” Hernandez said. “We are very worried about what’s happening, and we think this policy could help with that.” 

The Oregon Food Bank worked with Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon to help craft the policy at the heart of SB 611. The Legislative Fiscal Office projects the cost of providing benefits for the estimated 3,200 children eligible for Food for All Oregonians over the next four years would total $16 million from the general fund. 

Bipartisan Appeals

The bill enjoyed bipartisan support, according to Sen. Suzanne Weber (R-Tillamook), a longtime elementary school teacher who signed on as a co-sponsor. 

“This legislation is bipartisan, bicameral, from legislators in urban, suburban and rural Oregon,” she said during a public hearing on the bill last month. 

Weber explained that in the years before regular school breakfast programs in public schools, she often fed a morning meal to many of her students experiencing food insecurity.

“One thing I could count on was that if a student came to school hungry, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard the student tried, they would never be able to reach their potential,” she said. “We had something called the breakfast club, and they’d show up at my house that was about a half a block from the school and we would have breakfast, and then we’d all go to school together.

"A few dollars of food in the morning made all the difference in their education all day long."

Williams pointed out SNAP benefits have been shown to improve recipients’ high school graduation rates by as much as 18%. 

“For seniors who participate in SNAP, they’re more likely to be able to afford their medication and are 46% less likely to be hospitalized than non-participating, low-income seniors,” she added. “SB 611 will also support local economies. Every SNAP dollar spent in Oregon generates a dollar to $2 in economic activity.”

‘Health And Dignity’

Supporters testifying included former SNAP recipients, immigrant advocates, former refugees and members of the medical community. Many pointed out that Oregon is the only West coast state not to have such a program. 

Maria Delgado, a migrant woman and community activist with Unite Oregon Action, testified through a translator alongside Darwaish Zakhil, a former interpreter for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and current community advancement director with the Afghan Support Network in Portland. Both spoke of how extending nutrition benefits regardless of immigration status allowed Oregon families to maintain health and dignity. 

“When we prioritize children, we reduce crisis-driven spending,” Elena Barreto, senior early childhood advisor at the Children's Institute, said. “With 90% of a child’s brain developing by age five, this period is critical for cognitive, physical and emotional growth. Studies show that even marginal food insecurity is linked to behavioral, academic and emotional challenges from infancy to adolescence. It is also associated with costly health conditions, including stress, malnutrition, diabetes and hypertension.”

Timothy Herrera, an anthropologist and program coordinator at the University of Oregon, pushed back against the idea that school programs were enough to serve children experiencing food insecurity. 

“Please do not use the flawed logic that having access to school meals is sufficient enough to stop child hunger, and that Food for All is not needed,” he said.

“School meals are not enough. What about when a child goes home during holidays, during the summer? When they stay home when they’re sick? When a child has specific dietary needs due to chronic illnesses, when they graduate but are unable to work because they don’t have enough experience on their resume?” 

Starting Point

Despite economic arguments, the bill’s reference to immigration status proved a sticking point to those who testified in opposition, and to the two Republicans on the Senate Committee on Human Services. Both voted against passing the amended bill to the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means. 

“I’m going to be a no vote on both the amendment and the bill, given the no parameters around immigration status, and I do think there’s a lot of other community supports out there for helping people if they are in need of food support,” Sen. Diane Linthicum (R-Klamath) said without elaborating on the resources she alluded to. 

The committee’s three Democrats successfully advanced SB 611. 

“We understand that due to all the uncertainty federally, we cannot fund everything that we would want,” Hernandez said. “But we do think that prioritizing young kids would be a positive step forward and that when we pass Food for All Oregonians, like other states have done, we’ll build off of that. We’re looking to include elders and all kids, and hopefully in the future include all communities who are impacted and can’t gain food assistance simply because of their immigration status. We know that this is just a first step and that we will come advocating for more when Food for All passes.”