Dem House Leader Hakeem Jeffries makes visit to Worcester
WORCESTER — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries visited Worcester Tuesday to talk with Black leaders and visit a city food pantry.
Jeffries, of Brooklyn, New York, visited locations in the city with U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester. The Democratic leader stopped in Massachusetts Tuesday and was scheduled to head to the eastern portion of the state after leaving Worcester.
Jeffries and McGovern held a fundraiser at the Glass Tower at 446 Main St. before holding a roundtable meeting with Black leaders at the Village Worcester in Main South.
The roundtable included City Manager Eric D. Batista; Sha-Asia Medina, director, the Village; Parlee Jones of OurStory Edutainment; Celia Johnston Blue of the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition; Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King; Deborah Hall of YWCA of Central Mass.; Brenda Jenkins of YMCA of Central Mass.; Fred Taylor of NAACP Worcester; Moses Dixon of the Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging; the Rev. Clyde Talley of Belmont A.M.E. Zion Church and Lou Brady of Family Health Center of Worcester.
After the roundtable, Jeffries, who is the first Black party leader in either Chamber of Congress, said they discussed community needs.
"It was wonderful to be here with so many distinguished community leaders at the Village ... to talk about some of the challenges the community continues to face, the need for surging resources to help people to be able to achieve the decency and the middle-class dream that everybody in America deserves," Jeffries said.
McGovern, who is the lead Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said he and Jeffries met with leaders in Worcester in order to learn from people on the ground so those conversations can inform policies back in Congress, especially if Democrats take the House majority in November.
"Hakeem Jeffries, I hope, will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, and he will be in a position to influence national policy, he'll have a direct impact on places like Worcester," McGovern said. "We came here to learn from people who are on the ground doing incredible work in our community."
To respond to feedback from the roundtable meeting, Jeffries said it is important for Congress to bring resources back to states and local governments in a way that allows them to travel back to organizations that are based in the communities they serve.
Jeffries and McGovern later toured El Buen Samaritano, a food pantry on Piedmont Street. At the pantry, McGovern and Jeffries talked about the importance of providing nutritious meals to Americans in need and criticized House Republicans, saying they were working to cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding and other programs from Congress' farm bill.
Jeffries said lack of access to healthy food is an epidemic leading to poor health outcomes.
"We've got to deal with the gun violence epidemic and we're working to confront that, but in communities like those you serve (at El Buen Samaritano) and communities like I represent back at home, they're more Americans, more people, who die from drive throughs than drive-bys," Jeffries said.
Mari Gonzalez, executive director of El Buen Samaritano, said she hopes the congressmen saw the love for the community that organizations like hers bring.
"I just hope that the conversation continues about hunger awareness, the farm bill, making sure that they don't cut SNAP benefits, they don't cut Social Security, they don't cut benefits that help our community be uplifted," Gonzalez said.
Prior to the roundtable meeting, protestors gathered around the Glass Tower to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. A news release from protest organizers called for an end to all U.S. funding to the Israeli military and for Democrats to reject donations from the American Israeli Political Action Committee, which has contributed significantly to Jeffries. Some protestors were also out to protest President Joe Biden and Democrats' handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries makes visit to Worcester
