Engage With Your Members

Meeting face-to-face with Members of Congress and their staff helps develop your relationship with them and provides an opportunity for you to make your “ask” in person. Even if you only meet with staff, in-person meetings are one of the best ways to make sure your elected officials know what their constituents care about, and just how many of them care about it. Check out FRAC’s Tips for Capitol Hill Visits before scheduling appointments with your Members of Congress.

Site visits are one of the most effective tools you can use to educate your Members about programs locally and demonstrate to them the real impact any decisions they may make will have on the children and families served by the programs.

Inviting Members of Congress to visit SNAP or child nutrition program sites in their state or district is a powerful way to engage them. By witnessing the programs firsthand, Members can see the vital importance of these investments in their communities. FRAC has created resources to help you identify a site, prepare for the visit, craft a message, work with the media, and follow up with your Member after the visit.

By hosting a SNAP Challenge, advocates can help raise awareness of hunger in their community and the need to keep SNAP strong.

The SNAP Challenge is a way to gain a better understanding and raise awareness of the struggles millions of Americans face in affording enough nutritious food for their health and well-being. Participants spend a week living on the average daily SNAP benefit (about $4 per day) and share their experiences about the difficult choices they have to make. See FRAC’s SNAP Challenge Toolkit (pdf) for more information.

A community call helps advocates with limited travel budgets communicate anti-hunger messages to Members of Congress.

Members of Congress appreciate the opportunity to meet in the comfort of their Capitol Hill office with constituents, and advocates get the opportunity to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders by phone who represent the concerns of low-income individuals living in the district. Check out FRAC’s Community Call Guide (pdf) for helpful tips and ideas when planning your next interaction with your Members of Congress.