FAN Faith Leaders joined the Governor outside of NWDC earlier this week to bring accountability to the GEO group. Read more about it below.

This week, Faith Action Network clergy, staff, and board members stood alongside our state representatives, Tacoma Mayor and Council members, as Governor Bob Ferguson and AG Nick Brown announced legal action against the Geo corporation, the for-profit business making money off of detaining people at the Northwest Detention Center. Don't let our smiles fool you; we are serious about helping to hold them accountable for the criminal and health code violations occurring at this detention center. It's a first step. It's not enough, so we will keep going. The Governor's announcement is on the links below.

Facebook Link

TVW Link

May 1st – International Workers’ Day – is a day born from the labor struggles of working people right here in the United States, a powerful National Day of Action uniting labor, immigrants, and community organizations in the streets. This year, organizers are calling for a day of “No School, No Work, No Shopping” to disrupt the takeover of our country. Here in Washington—and across our country— workers, students, and families will be marching, rallying, walking out and taking action together to demand:

📣ICE out of our communities.
📣Investments in workers and expanding our rights - not corporations and billionaires.
📣Free and fair elections.

Note: If you can’t fully participate in the “No Work, No School, No Shopping” on May 1st, consider what actions you can take. For example, you could shop at local businesses instead of big box stores or get groceries ahead of May Day.

We also urge everyone to sign the petition in support of Windmill Farms mushroom workers continuing their fight to unionize. https://act.seiu.org/a/windmill_instar

Together, we can show where real power lives in this country: with workers, not billionaires. Follow this link to make a pledge on how you will participate this May Day and see a list of May Day actions below. Let's show up to support workers and immigrants at marches across the state!

• Seattle: Rally & March (12:00-3:00 PM) Cal Anderson Park (1635 11th Ave) You can also join Faith and Labor and other FAN advocates at the One America pre-rally with Rep. Jayapal at 11. Please rsvp here to join. Contact FAN Staff Blake Alford@fanwa.org for more details. 
• Wenatchee: Families Before Fortunes! (5:30-7:00 PM) March starts and ends at Methow Park (420 Methow St.), followed by rally and taco truck 
• Sunnyside: March for our People, Our Land and Our Future! (3:30-4:30pm) March starts at South Hill Park (1521 S 1^st St), followed by Community Celebration (4:30-7pm).
• Spokane: (4:00-6:00pm) May Day Youth Rally and March, Rotary Fountain, Riverfront Park (please note location change). Join youth leaders from across Eastern WA organizing for justice and a future that works for all of us. If you can participate fully, we encourage you to join the call to disrupt business as usual. If you can’t—because of work, school, or responsibilities—you still have a role to play.
• Yakima: March & Demonstration Gather at 3:30 pm at Yakima Valley College (W Nob Hill Blvd/16th Ave) followed by a 4 pm March to Miller Park (513 N 3rd St.).  5:15 Gathering at Miller Park with resource booths, speakers, entertainment, food. 

As households in the US face increasing hunger, we need to raise our voices about SNAP cuts and their moral consequences. Right now is an excellent time. The Farm Bill proposal, HR 7567 (Farm Food, and National Security Act), keeps in place the deep cuts and administrative obstructions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) passed under HR 1, the "Big Beautiful Bill" (BBB). The House vote on this Farm Bill was postponed this week, giving us a chance to inundate our representatives' inboxes and district office phone while they are on recess this coming week.

Please contact your federal Representative this week, using one of the following links or creating your own message. Urge them to vote against the Farm Bill as it is currently written. It is especially impactful to personalize the letter with a story about your or your community's experiences of hunger, or what you are seeing in your food pantries, community meals, and other food ministries.

• Food Research & Action Center: https://secure.everyaction.com/4-QDuKNQ-0--QdARqSin_w2
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: https://act.elca.org/page/94920/action/1?chain
• Friends Committee on National Legislation: https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/159843/
• United Church of Christ Office of Public Policy & Advocacy: https://www.votervoice.net/JAWM/Campaigns/136486/Respond

Find your federal legislators: https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/

In Washington State, the BBB is expected to void SNAP eligibility for about 137,300 people due to a broader application of work requirements, and for another 33,000 who are refugees, asylees and other migrants. We are grateful to the Washington State legislature and Governor Ferguson for allocating $44 million to provide state food benefits for the immigrants who were kicked off SNAP.

In addition to reversing the harms done to the American people through HR 1, a good Farm Bill would also help ensure that small and historically marginalized farmers receive fair support, that our nation invests in sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices, and that the dignity of farmworkers, tribes and rural communities is affirmed. 

FRAC's advocacy letter requests that legislators co-sponsor two other bills that would help reduce the harm of HR 1. First is the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act, HR 6088, which will undo the complex administrative changes that weaken SNAP and shift costs to states. (The impact of this cost shift to states is so severe that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that states will be forced to contribute $35 billion or leave the program entirely.) Second is the Improving Access to Nutrition Act, HR 7522, which would end the three-month time limit on SNAP. If you are signing a non-FRAC letter, please consider adding these two requests in your personalized section.

Thank you so much for speaking up for hungry neighbors!

The Interfaith Network for Indigenous Communities reminds you that the Day of Awareness for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women/People is coming up on May 5.

"The MMIWP crisis is a result of generations of violence, broken promises and treaties, and assimilationist policy. Existing institutional structures and systems do not sufficiently reflect or honor the experiences or needs of Indigenous people, and therefore cannot promote healing, justice, and accountability." (from Executive Summary of the third report of the WA State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force)

In an analysis of Washington State's Homicide Investigation Tracking System from 1980 to April 2025, researchers found that the homicide rate for American Indian/Alaska Native people was more than two times higher than the rate for non-Native people, and the unsolved homicide cases are 2.5 times higher.

Please consider taking action as part of this Day of Awareness:

• Advocate with your federal Representatives for the Bridging Agency Data Gaps & Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act (S 390/ H.R. 1010), which would strengthen Tribal safety by giving tribes and states tools to counter violence against missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives (MMIWR). This is a bipartisan bill that has passed the Senate, and is supported by the Friends Committee on National Legislation and Amnesty International, among others. To learn more, the FCNL has a good article and Congressman Dan Newhouse has a one-pager.
• Highlight this crisis and all those impacted in prayer on the weekend of May 1-3. Pray for the safety and dignity of all.
• Check to see what is happening in your city. There are resolutions and events around Washington state.

Stay connected with our emails! Please be sure to list fan@fanwa.org as a safe sender by adding us to your contacts.