TALK OF THE TOWN
With Mike Aguirre And Co-host Arthur Aguirre LIVE Sat 11am
“LET THEM STEAL CAKE!” CONTINUING CUTS TO SNAP ASSISTANCE AFFECTING MILLIONS OF CHILDRN AND FAMILIES, INCLUDING MILITARY FAMILIES
GUESTS GINA PLATA-NINO, DIRECTOR OF SNAP POLICY AND ADVOCACY, AND ATTORNEY JONI HALPERN
The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) is the nation’s leading anti-hunger advocacy organization. For more than 56 years, FRAC has improved the nutrition, health, and well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the United States through advocacy, partnerships, and by advancing bold and equitable policy solutions.
Gina Plata-Nino serves as Director of SNAP Policy and Advocacy. Previously, she served as a Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition and Agriculture in the Biden-Harris Administration’s Domestic Policy Council, where she helped lead the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. In this role, she worked with federal agencies and private stakeholders to advance the goal of ending hunger and diet-related diseases by 2030. At FRAC, Plata-Nino collaborates with the SNAP team to improve the program’s reach and effectiveness for low-income households. She leads legislative and technical support efforts for national, state, and community organizations, as well as government agencies and nonprofits, to strengthen SNAP access, benefits, and customer service.
Joni Halpern has been an attorney representing low-income clients for 30 years. Her area of practice is administrative law, working with clients of all ages who need help from SSI, SSDI, SNAP, CalWORKs, and other public benefits programs. She worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. In the process of investigating a county practice of searching the home of every innocent applicant for public assistance, she founded a nonprofit grassroots organization helping families on public assistance who were struggling to reach self-sufficiency. The Supportive Parents Information Network (SPIN) operated for 14 years and was well-known for its robust, successful advocacy on behalf of low-income women and children. Ms. Halpern now works as a consulting attorney for the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA). Before becoming a lawyer, she was an award-winning community journalist.