Boston Summer Eats Program

Boston, USA
About the city. The Boston Public Schools (BPS) educate more than 54,000 students in 125 schools – 74 per cent of the school-age children who live in Boston.

Goal

The main goal is to expand access to healthy meals by providing free and nutritious meals to youth ages 18 and under at more than 100 locations throughout the city. This innovative effort aims to lessen the summer food gap by increasing the availability of nontraditional meal sites.

Implementation period. Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the 2018 Boston Summer Eats Program launch on July 19, 2018. The pilot project took place a year earlier.

Fact

In Eastern Massachusetts, one in nine children and one in eleven adults live with food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life.

Solutions

Boston Summer Eats is a program designed to make meals accessible to city kids and youth and is comprised of five summer meal programs – Lunch on the Lawn, Books, and Bites, Summer Eats at the Bolling Building, Summer Eats at Farmers Markets, and Summer Eats at Boston Housing Authority (BHA) locations. Following a successful pilot program at City Hall Plaza and the Mattapan Public Library in 2017, Boston Summer Eats expanded to include over include over 118 sites, including additional BPL branches, Boston Housing Authority properties, the Bolling Building, and ten farmers markets. At the various locations, children and youth can obtain free meals and participate in engaging programming comprised of arts and crafts, physical fitness activities. No registration or identification is required.

“The Boston Summer Eats program is a great example of our all-hands-on-deck approach to meeting the needs of students in the Boston Public Schools,” said BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius. “When students are well fed and ready to learn, they’re more likely to be happy and engaged with learning, whether it’s in the world around them during summer break or in the classroom. This also eases the burden on parents who want to make sure their kids are eating healthy meals during the summer.”

Through the Collaboration for Community Health, the City has been able to fund 32 new nontraditional sites in Boston’s neighbourhoods to provide meals to kids and teens ages 18 and under. These are existing locations in the neighbourhoods for community building, and adding the summer meal aspect for youth is an added resource to help communities thrive this summer.

“No child in Boston should ever go hungry, and this program helps serve all students throughout the summer months,” said Mayor Walsh. “I am proud that through Boston Summer Eats, we are we are reducing food insecurity, one child, at a time, making sure that Boston’s students are happy, healthy, and ready before they return to the classroom next school year.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDU1KLloVQ

Team

The Boston Summer Eats program is led by the Mayor’s Office of Food Access (OFA) in partnership with Project Bread, the Greater Boston YMCA, and Boston Public Schools Food & Nutrition Services.

Timeline

In 2018 over 18,500 meals were served by Boston Summer Eats. Meals are available on a first-come, first-served basis at the following locations and times. In 2020 the program served 1,894,748 meals across 91 sites in 16 neighbourhoods, according to a press release.

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