Project Bread understands that hunger can't be solved through stop-gap measures. Instead, our work seeks to provide sustainable, scalable solutions that permanently move the needle on ending hunger.
President & CEO of Project Bread, Erin McAleer has been appointed to the Healey/Driscoll transition team.
Erin will serve on the committee, Thriving Youth and Young Adults, focused on “addressing learning loss from the pandemic and give all children and families equitable access to the educational, social, emotional and behavioral supports they need.”
Under the Healey/Driscoll administration’s leadership, we anticipate and look forward to effective collaboration, further progress, and expanded initiatives to end hunger across the state. And we are already getting started.
The 2021-22 state legislative session as ended. While there is still a lot to do, we are proud of the accomplishments achieved this session by our team, our partners, and advocates like you.
We recognize that communities and people of color are disproportionately impacted by hunger because systemic racism leads to economic inequity and health disparities. As part of our efforts to eradicate hunger, we advocate for both state and federal policy change to expand food access and program eligibility, clarify misconceptions about receiving support.
Launched in 2017, the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) allows SNAP recipients to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers. While the program has been a tremendous success, to date it has only been authorized through the state budget. An Act Relative to an Agricultural Healthy Incentives Program (H.145/S.108) would create a permanent program to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
Learn MoreAccording to the most recent data, 37% of public university students in Massachusetts experience food insecurity. Project Bread has joined the Hunger-Free College Campus Coalition to support An Act Establishing the Massachusetts Hunger-Free Campus Initiative (H.1368/S.822) which would provide capacity, guidance, and funding to public colleges and not-for-profit institutions of higher education take steps to alleviate food insecurity on campus.
Learn MoreOver 700,000 residents of Massachusetts are estimated to be eligible for SNAP, but are not currently enrolled. An additional 22,000 families receive SNAP benefits, but have zero income even for cash assistance. An Act to Streamline Access to Critical Public Health and Safety-Net Programs Through Common Applications (H.1290/S.761) would ease the process for Massachusetts families in need of healthcare, food assistance, cash assistance, and other basic needs.
Learn MoreProject Bread is leading the Feed Kids Campaign to end childhood hunger, by starting with what happens in schools. By passing An Act Relative to Universal School Meals (H.714/S.314) we can ensure that, while at school, every child is fed and ready to learn without worrying about cost or stigma.
Learn MoreIn October 2021, An Act to Promote Student Nutrition (H.715/S.298) was signed into law! This bill prohibits schools from certain meal debt collection practices that involves or penalizes the student.
Learn moreAction Center
Your legislators need to hear from you — let them know you want them to support these key bills or urgent policy actions to ensure equitable food access in Massachusetts by completing the action alerts below.
Thank Governor Healey for proposing free School Meals for All for next school year (2023-24) and ask your legislators to pass this supplemental budget quickly so that schools and families know this program will continue next year.
It's a new legislative session (2023-24), and we refiled the bill to make School Meals for All permanent! Ask your legislators to cosponsor the bill!
Project Bread is leading the Feed Kids Campaign to end childhood hunger, by starting with what happens in schools. By passing An Act Relative to Universal School Meals (H.714/S.314) we can ensure that, while at school, every child is fed and ready to learn without worrying about cost or stigma.
Our success comes from our engaged supporters. Sign up to receive action alerts to impact change and hunger policy updates to stay informed, including our biweekly news round-up, The Hunger Advocate.
Sign upExplore the timeline below to see our how our research and advocacy has led to enduring change across the state to permenantly remove barriers to food access and reduce food insecurity in Massachusetts.
Patrick Hughes led the first Walk for Hunger from the Paulist Center in downtown Boston. An estimated 2,000 people walked 29.6 miles, raising $26,000 to help fund two hunger projects. The first pledge walk in the country, the Walk had two purposes: raise funds to help people experiencing hunger and stand together for social justice and social change that would eventually eliminate hunger. This is still true today and continues to be an annual force for change.
Conducted the first evidence-based study of hunger among low-income families in the state in 1991 with the MA Department of Public Health and the MA Anti-Hunger Coalition, called the Childhood Community Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP). The findings of this study led to the creation of the Child Nutrition Outreach Program —a parternship between Project Bread and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to support school meal programs and help children access healthy meals during the school year and summers.
Project Bread sponsored a study, conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, that proved that children who ate breakfast at school were more likely to do well in math, have fewer absences, and require fewer trips to the school nurse. This work led to the bipartisan adoption Universal Breakfast in low-income schools throughout the state, which provides breakfast free of charge to all students regardless of household income.
Piloted a collaboration between state agencies, called the Child Nutrition Access Project, that automatically enrolled children receiving SNAP into the free and reduced-price school meals program, reducing the need for multiple applications. This program is now statewide and enrolls hundreds of thousands of children for free school meals each year.
Teamed up with the MA Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to launch the state-wide Healthy Incentives Program, which helps low-income housholds use their SNAP benefits to shop at farmer's markets and local vendors to purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Project Bread played a critical role in ensuring that the Rise and Shine Coalition’s Breakfast After the Bell legislation — An Act Regarding Breakfast After the Bell — was successfully passed. Beginning in school year 2022-2023, all students who attend a school in which 60% or more of their students are eligible for free or reduced price school meals will be required to offer breakfast after the bell to all students.
Project Bread was instrumental in the passage of An Act Promoting Student Nutrition, a bill that addresses both the root causes of unpaid meal debt as well as the impact unpaid meal debt has on students — prohibiting schools from certain meal debt collection practices that involves or penalizes the student. Alongside our partners at the MA Law Reform Institute, Project Bread was a champion of this bill, helping draft legislative language, providing data and research, and mobilizing advocates leading to this bill becoming law.
Thanks to continued advocacy efforts by the Feed Kids Coalition and Project Bread, Governor Baker signed a 1 year extension of School Meals for All through the 2022-2023 school year! This means that there is no cost to families for any student to receive school breakfast or lunch for the school year. Massachusetts is 1 of only 6 states in the nation to take this step forward. This momentous accomplishment could not have been possible without the tireless advocacy and organizing from Project Bread, our partners and bill sponsors Senator Sal DiDomenico and Representative Andy Vargas.