I am Shannon Green, I run a grassroots non-profit called Analyze & Reform. I’m also a researcher, doctoral student, currently symptomatic and on strict quarantine with my three children.

Today I am coming to you about something specific and affecting all of us right now. Many of you in our communities are on a ‘shelter in place’ or ‘stay at home’ order. Some of you, like me, have been ordered into strict quarantine because you are symptomatic, have had contact with a person who is positive for COVID 19, or are waiting on test results.

What you may not know is how those orders affect the most vulnerable among us. If a family, elderly person or immunocompromised individual in your community is on any type of food assistance, WIC, Snap, EBT, or Food Stamps, they are UNABLE to stay home. Their purchasing of food is regulated by the government both the method in which they purchase, They must be in person at a store and how frequently they purchase food, there are monthly restrictions as well as restrictions on what types of food or products they buy.

They cannot order their groceries from a local grocer online and stay in their car to pick them up. They are unable to use food assistance programs on any websites from which you can order food and have it delivered, like Amazon.

How this impacts you. This means if a family is symptomatic and have been ordered to go on strict quarantine, THEY CAN NOT DO THIS. There is no option currently available for them to procure food without exposing others to this virus. They have to go in person, themselves to a store and buy their groceries. Obviously, this places all of us at immense unnecessary risk. 

This is a problem with a really simple solution. If Giant, Weis, Amazon, Walmart or your local grocery chain had the option at their online checkout for Snap/EBT/Food stamps and WIC information to be entered as a payment method these compromised individuals could stay in quarantine or at the very least stay in their cars when they picked up their groceries. I know, and my organization knows, that this is possible because exactly 1 state in our entire country has already enabled EBT purchases on Amazon, New York. Good job New York.

Now is the time for action, swift action that protects our most vulnerable, our poor, our immunocompromised and the rest of our communities from the spread of this disease. We need state and territory governments to facilitate this capability for our grocers and order that it is instated quickly. We do not have time to waste.

I am asking you for the good of your own health, the good of your neighbor, and the good of your community to sign this petition, each governor from every state and U.S. territory will receive it once the required number of signatures has been reached.

I’m also asking you to reach out to the vulnerable and strictly quarantined in your community. Ask them if you can have some groceries delivered for them or even better do so without asking. None of the referenced assistance programs help vulnerable individuals buy toilet paper or cleaning products so maybe drop some of those off too if you’re in a financial position to do so.

And finally, please stay home.  

Be Well, Thank you.