Advocates urge Oregon lawmakers to pass bill extending food benefits for immigrant children

As Oregon food banks continue to see a rise in visits, anti-hunger groups and parents are urging state lawmakers to pass a bill that would extend food assistance benefits to children who could be denied access to food programs because of their immigration status.

At an Oregon state house “snack-in” – what organizers called a family-friendly version of a sit-in – on Wednesday, parents like Christina Bella colored on paper plates with their children and ate sandwiches and fruit as lawmakers walked by to urge them to pass Senate Bill 611, which would establish the Food for All Oregonians program through the state’s Department of Human Services.

Bella, a first generation Mexican-American, said she saw her family struggle growing up, and wouldn’t want other families to go through the same experience.

“They couldn’t apply to all these programs that I’m eligible for, so it was really heartbreaking to see all their hardships,” she said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to have accessible healthy options for families whether you have documents or not, because everybody needs to eat.”

The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – a program that provides food benefits to income-eligible families – limits access based on immigration status. Through Food for All Oregonians, children under the age of six who aren’t eligible because of their immigration status, would be able to receive money to supplement their family’s grocery bill.

“These are our immigrant and refugee kids that currently are not eligible for programs like SNAP,” said Andrea Williams, the president of the Oregon Food Bank. “Those are the kids that are not yet in our public school system where they may access things like universal school meals.”

The program would be similar to SNAP and help about 3,200 children, according to Matt Newell-Ching, the public policy manager at Oregon Food Bank. If SB 611 passes, it would cost an estimated $8.1 million for the first two years of the program, and $17.1 million for the 2027-2029 biennium. The money would come from the state’s general fund.

Advocates are pushing for lawmakers to pass the bill as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently directed state agencies to tighten rules around SNAP, to prevent people the Trump administration calls “illegal aliens” from being eligible for the program.

That federal agency has not cited any evidence to support its assertion that people without legal status are receiving federal benefits. The call to state action also comes after the Trump administration halted millions of dollars of federal food deliveries to food banks across the nation, including Oregon, in March.

“As the national debate goes in one direction, we hope that leaders in Oregon stand in a different direction.” Newell-Ching said. “The timing of this would make a really powerful statement to show that Oregon wants to go in a different direction than the climate of fear and chaos and frankly cruelty that we’re seeing from the federal level.”

SB 611 passed the Senate Committee on Human Services in April and was sent to the state’s budget committee. It still needs to pass both the House and the Senate before it becomes law.

An earlier version of the bill was written to be much broader. It included people under the age of 25 and over the age of 55, but lawmakers narrowed it to focus on children, to give it the best possible chance of passing, according to food bank advocates.