Using your words (7)

Blog Post 7

Estefany Sanabria

This past week was one of the best weeks I’ve had in DC. It was RESULTS’ International Conference where people from all over the country and nation come to lobby and speak to their representatives all about the changes we want in our world. It felt super cool to hear from people all the way from France and Canada and even Africa. I even got to meet the former president of Malawi. It was pretty cool that in order to speak to her, we had to start by addressing her as “her excellence”. She’s one of the most amazing women I have ever met. She was the first ever woman president of Malawi and she has already constructed over hundreds of schools for girls.

It also felt so amazing to have a nametag with a little staff sticker on it and getting clapped for by over 500 people that attended the conference for working all summer long on backgrounds and state fact sheets that the attendees would benefit from. I also got to lead a lobby meeting with my house of representative, Luis V. Gutierrez. I didn’t get to meet with him exactly, but I got to meet with one of his staff members that works with him almost every day. 

I also felt very impowered because I got to share my story about how my family and I grew up on SNAP and how it gave me the chance of being here today. One of the staff members told us that he was very proud of us for really graduating from SNAP and that we grew up with an amazing program. It felt nice to impact someone’s life with my words and I can’t wait to keep sharing my story with the thousands of people who think that everyone takes advantage of SNAP and isn’t using it appropriately.