Campaign for Healthy Incentives Program Funding

The Collaborative leads the Campaign for HIP Funding to ensure that the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), which provides fresh, healthy, local fruits and vegetables for SNAP recipients, receives increased state funding to meet demand, operates year-round, and adds new farmers to fill gaps in program coverage.

View a map of HIP locations and legislative districts here.

Winter 2024-25: Follow the steps in this call to action to support HIP and avoid the programmatic change due to lack of funding in the fiscal year 2025 budget.

The Campaign for HIP Funding Coalition

The Campaign coalition includes more than 300 farmers, farmers markets, nonprofit agricultural and food system organizations, faith institutions, healthcare institutions, individuals with lived experience with food insecurity, and more. The Campaign coalition holds regular, virtual meetings to collectively advocate to lawmakers and to keep each other updated about the program’s on the ground operation.

Interested in getting involved to support HIP?

View our current call to action here.

Join the Campaign for HIP Funding by signing on here!

Success of the Campaign in 2024

The fiscal year 2025 budget was signed into law by Governor Healey and included almost $16 million for HIP. Unfortunately, this level of funding is not enough to ensure year-round operation, or add any new farmers to the program. The Collaborative will continue to advocate for this important funding though supplemental funding at a later point this fiscal year.

Campaign highlights

Thank you to the hundreds of Campaign members who have lent their advocacy to the HIP campaign this year as well as in years past.  

Together, we have successfully advocated for $64 million for the program since 2017:

• $1.35 million in funding for the program in the FY18 budget 
• $2.15 million in a FY18 supplemental budget
• $4 million in the FY19 budget 
• $6.5 million in the FY20 budget 
• $2 million in a FY20 supplemental budget 
• $5 million in CARES Act funding
• $13 million in the FY21budget 
• $13 million in the FY22 budget 
• $12 million in the FY23 budget, plus a commitment to carry forward $12 million of unspent funds from previous years.
• $5 million in the FY24 budget, plus a commitment to carry forward $8.8 million of unspent funds from previous years.
• $5.1 in a FY24 supplemental budget
• $15 million in the FY25 budget, plus a commitment to carry forward less than $1 million of unspent funds from previous years.

In addition to our budgetary success, the Campaign has successfully advocated:

• To make the HIP program more equitable; in 2020 we succeeded in efforts to make the program more equitable through advocacy when the Department of Transitional Assistance opened the program up to new farmers. 39 farmer vendors were authorized to fill geographic gaps in program coverage, many of them farmers of color committed to serving their communities with limited access to fresh healthy produce.
• For year-round funding; in 2020 the legislature passed and the governor signed a law making the program year-round, as a way of avoiding the annual suspensions that have undercut the program’s effectiveness.
• Finally, the Campaign built significant support in the Massachusetts legislature. HIP is one of the top priorities of the Legislature’s bicameral and bipartisan Food System Caucus, which has more than 145 members and counting. Thank you to our legislative champions Representative Hannah Kane, Representative Mindy Domb, Senator Jo Comerford, and former Senator Anne Gobi.

We especially want to thank the Campaign Steering Committee; Leran Minc and Selecca Bulgar-Medina of Project Bread, Susan Murray of SEMAP, Kelly Coleman of CISA, Laura Sylvester of the Food Bank of Western Mass, Laura Smith of Lane Gardens and Oakdale Farms, Vickey Siggers of Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, Lesley Melendez of Groundwork Lawrence, Enrique Vargas of Mill City Grows, Aiesha Washington of Action for Boston Community Development, and Liz O’Gilvie of the Springfield Food Policy Council and Gardening the Community, for their work strategizing and guiding our advocacy.

Additional Resources

The Collaborative has written a report on the history of the Campaign for HIP Funding, which can be found here.

HIP fact sheet

Fact sheet citations

HIP/SNAP outreach resources developed by Campaign members.

Videos and stories from HIP families and farmers, produced by the Campaign.

Media coverage of HIP’s successes and history of the program. 

Information about the program from the Department of Transitional Assistance.

For more information about the campaign, please contact Becca Miller.

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