A big change will be coming to families who take advantage of the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP).

Beginning in December, all families using HIP benefits, regardless of their household size, will see their monthly incentives reduced to $20, which is, at a minimum, a 50% cut for all users. The current benefit structure sees households of one to two people receiving up to $40, households of three to five people receiving up to $60 and houses of six or more people receiving up to $80 per month.

HIP is a program that puts money back on EBT cards when people use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy healthy local produce from HIP vendors. Both HIP and SNAP are administered by the state Department of Transitional Assistance.

DTA announced the cut to HIP vendors and partners in an email signed by Commissioner Jeff McCue on Oct. 17.

“We are writing to share with you an update on HIP. With limited funding for HIP in fiscal year 2025, DTA and MDAR [Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources] explored several options to reduce program spending in order to maintain a year-round program,” the email states. “At the current funding level, the only viable option that ensured year-round program operation was reducing the monthly HIP incentive amount.”

During the state budget process, Gov. Maura Healey requested $25 million in her fiscal 2025 budget proposal, which would fully fund HIP. The final approved budget, though, provided only $15 million.

DTA has been working with the MDAR to determine what options are available to meet the revised budget and reducing the monthly incentive to $20 was found to be the only viable way to ensure year-round operation of the program without any suspensions.

McCue said the agency restructured HIP to keep this “critical” program in operation. In September, nearly 55,000 households across Massachusetts participated in HIP, totaling more than 103,000 transactions, with an average incentive of $38.19 per household, according to data released by DTA.

“We know how critical the Healthy Incentives Program is to families and farmers in Massachusetts,” McCue said in a statement. “We are restructuring the program to ensure it can continue to operate year-round within the current funding level, to allow ongoing support for families and farmers to plan.”

State finance laws require DTA to work within the appropriated budget for the agency.

State Sen. Jo Comerford said the Legislature allocated $15 million to HIP with the intention of filing supplemental budgets in the winter or spring to ensure the program could operate through the end of fiscal 2025, which ends on June 30, 2025.

“We believe $15 million will last us until at least March at the current levels,” the Northampton Democrat said, noting the Legislature has fully funded HIP since she joined the Senate in 2019. “I’m in strong opposition to this decision … This is a priority program of the Legislature and it’s specifically important to western Mass. and we will have many supplemental budgets between now and March.”

She noted supplemental budgets are how the program has remained fully funded in the past and she is unsure why the state is taking a different route this year.

“I wish the administration had checked in with the Legislature on our intentions … Why was this a unilateral move for a program that is so beloved and effective?” Comerford said. “That kind of high-level conversation did not happen.”

A DTA spokesperson reiterated that the program changes were made to ensure the program could operate year-round.

Who will be affected?

Rebecca Miller, policy director of the statewide Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, which advocates for Massachusetts-grown food and creating economic opportunities in the agriculture industry, said the reduction to just $20 per month will severely impact people everywhere.

“It will hurt a lot of folks across the state,” Miller said. “We’re trying to make sure that folks that make decisions about the state budget understand the implication of this change … We strongly urge the state administration and Legislature to close this $10 million gap.”

Miller said she’s disappointed that “we’re once again facing a scenario where HIP is threatened,” as the program has been entirely state-funded since 2018 and there hasn’t been a program freeze since 2020.

Broken down, about half of the households using HIP in September had an adult over 60, one third of households had someone with a disability and a quarter of households had children under 18, according to data from DTA.

“That’s a pretty diverse bunch and it’s really, again, impacting folks at a time when we’re seeing high food insecurity rates,” Miller said, emphasizing that “the timing before the holidays is terrible.”

Miller, as well as Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) Interim Executive Director Kelly Coleman, said these reductions will create what Miller called a “ripple effect” across the agricultural industry because customers, farmers, farm stores and other businesses will all be affected.

“We are hearing from farmers that their HIP sales range anywhere from 10% to 50% of their sales, depending on which market they’re accessing,” Coleman said, noting about 25% of all HIP sales take place within the three counties of the Connecticut River Valley. “We’re hopeful the state will be able to allocate those funds as soon as possible.”

Comerford noted that food pantries “are going to have to adjust because people will need more support.”

The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative said the reduction will affect 285 Massachusetts farmers around the state, as well as 38 farmers’ markets, 12 mobile markets that operate at 109 stops and 59 farmers that operate 66 farm stands that are open in December.

At the Atlas Farm Store, owner and Manager Kelly Hickey echoed those thoughts, as several vendors working with the store are also HIP vendors and the reduction will affect them, as well as her own store.

“It’s a really big deal,” Hickey said at the Farm Store on Routes 5 and 10 in Deerfield. “We found out last Thursday and it was definitely jarring news to hear.”

She noted SNAP and HIP sales are combined when the store looks at its data, but Hickey said, anecdotally, “that the vast majority of our SNAP sales are HIP sales.”

“We do about $25,000 in SNAP sales a month, so that’s a lot of vegetables going out to people and it’s a lot of people taking advantage of the HIP program,” Hickey said. “It’s about 14% of our total sales for the year, so it affects us financially. Also, we worked really hard to make this a welcoming environment and a place where people from all parts of the community can shop and have access to fresh food and having that be in jeopardy is another kind of loss.”

What’s next for HIP?

Organizations like the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative and CISA said they will continue to advocate for the return of the program to its current funding levels.

Hickey added a quick return to the current levels is especially important, as even one month of reduced benefits can make a huge impact.

“We’re hoping for, at worst, a month or two at the $20 and then a restoration to the full funding,” Hickey said, adding uncertainty can cause businesses like the Atlas Farm Store to lose business. “Even this month, we have people calling before they come in to make sure that HIP is running.”

“That much uncertainty can do so much damage to people’s trust that we’ve really built up over the years. They need to know that their trip is going to be worth it and they’re going to be able to get what they need,” Hickey continued. “Even one or two months of low funding with people with technological barriers, language barriers, or any number of reasons that communication can be complicated, it’s going to be really hard to get the message across that it’s changed and then, ideally, it’s changed back.”

The Legislature, too, will continue to work to find funding, according to Comerford, who said she reached out to Senate leadership and acknowledged “that these are tough budget times.”

“This is really tough, but this is not the program to cut,” Comerford said. “This is a proven and effective anti-hunger, pro-farmer, pro-economic-development program.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.