At our January 3 meeting, we hosted guest speaker Salaam Bhatti, one of the Democratic candidates seeking to replace Rob Wittman as our 1st Congressional District representative.
Bhatti says that Republicans’ cuts to the nation’s largest anti- hunger program pushed him to run for office. As a public interest lawyer and someone who has worked in social justice, public benefits, and human rights for more than 13 years,
Bhatti explains: “I’m not here to make dollars; I’m here to make change.”
In November 2023, Bhatti was named director of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) in Richmond. Before joining FRAC, he was the public benefits attorney and deputy director of the Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC).
During his term, he directed the development of a SNAP eligibility calculator to make food assistance more accessible to households with low incomes and lobbied the state assembly to effectively champion bipartisan efforts to extend SNAP eligibility to more than 25,000 households.
A father of two boys, Bhatti describes himself as a lifelong fighter for working families. Born to immigrants and raised on “Mister Rogers, Sesame Street, public libraries and schools, WIC, and free school meals,” he knows firsthand the importance of community and public service. He has spent his life fighting to make government work for the people who need it most.