PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On Monday, a small group of people gathered in Pittsfield to tell their personal stories of struggle and ask others to join their cause ahead of elections this fall.
What You Need To Know
- Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign came to Pittsfield on Monday
- They are trying to get people to join them for a march on Washington
- The march is on June 29
- They have a list of demands from a 17-point agenda
“In Massachusetts there are 1.3 million low and frequent voters, and that’s what we’re highlighting now. We are on the continuum of announcing press conferences simultaneously across the country to talk about how poverty does equal death,” said one of MAPPC’s TriChairs, Savina Martin.
The Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign set a list of demands for candidates running for office this year.
It comes from a 17-point agenda and includes abolishing poverty, health care for all, protecting women’s rights and a living minimum wage.
“We either sometimes struggle to put food on the table or pay a bill. Sometimes we are behind our bills just to make sure that kids and family have something to eat, have a roof over our shoulders,” said one of the MAPPC TriChairs, Janice Guzman.
Rev. Mike Denton has heard these challenging stories before and has seen the impact poverty and food insecurity has had in his own community.
“The number of people that come to our pantry that our church helped start has gone up significantly, and more than double now in less than two years there were a lot of support during the pandemic and during that time we found out what supports could do and make a difference in those lives,” said Denton.
Denton says in many cases families don’t have enough to cover basic needs.
“We also recognize that it’s the same pool of money that you tend to draw from. So when people are hungry, they also tend to be housing insecure. When they’re having housing insecurity, they also tend to have insecurity around medical care. When they have insecurity around medical care, they tend to have insecurity around paying for basic communications, as well as transportation,” Denton said.
The Poor People’s Campaign is marching on Washington on June 29 and will try to bus people who need transportation from Massachusetts. The goal is to address the crisis of deaths by poverty in the U.S.
“We will be having a massive moral march and hearing from impacted people all across the country, telling their stories and stories that need to be heard,” said State coordinating committee member of MAPPC, Judy Schiavone.