Project Bread and Congresswoman Clark Promote Summer Eats

MALDEN, Mass. – On July 25, Project Bread, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization, Congresswoman Katherine Clark (MA-05), and Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) led state and local officials on a tour of the Malden Public Schools Food Truck for a Summer Eats stop at MacDonald Stadium.

Summer Eats provides free meals for kids and teens at hundreds of sites across Massachusetts. Participating partners, including Malden Public Schools and the Mystic Valley YMCA, help to fund meal sites, which provide anyone under the age of 18 with a free meal a day at Summer Eats locations. During the event, kids and teens ran over from the Malden recreation sports clinic and families brought children from the neighborhood to receive free lunch, a hot chicken sandwich, serviced by school nutrition staff. Congresswoman Clark and other attendees helped joined in serving meals to the dozens of children and teens at the site.

Attendees included: Congressman Katherine Clark, Massachusetts 5th District, U.S. House of Representatives; Erin McAleer, President and CEO, Project Bread; Senator Jason Lewis, MA 5th Middlesex District, State Senate; Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian, MA 32nd Middlesex District, State House of Representatives; Representative Paul Donato, MA 35th Middlesex District, State House of Representatives; Representative Steven Ultrino, MA 33rd Middlesex District, State House of Representatives; Liam Horsman, Regional Director, Office of U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey; Gary Christenson, Mayor of Malden; Shannon Raymond, Training Coordinator, Special Nutrition Programs, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Kristina Webber, School Nutrition Programs Coordinator, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Martine Cherry, Regional School Nutrition Program Branch Chief, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Ligia Noriega-Murphy, Superintendent, Malden Public Schools; Toni Mertz, Finance Director, Malden Public Schools; Jennifer Spadafora, Vice Chair, Malden School Committee; Adam Weldai, Malden School Committee; and Kate Filteau, Assistant School Nutrition Director, Malden Public Schools.

Free school meals have been the number one source of free food throughout the pandemic—a critical resource for the 1 in 5 households with children and 1 in 3 households of color with children who struggle to afford enough food and rely daily on those free school meals. Community-based organizations like Malden Public Schools have been critical and steadfast local supports during this crisis, providing a wide variety of resources to residents, especially to youth and families even when schools are closed.

For more than 20 years, Project Bread, through its Child Nutrition Outreach Program, has worked in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide youth with access to Summer Eats across the state. Any child or teen 18 and younger can eat at more than 500 sites statewide for free. No registration or ID is required. Last summer, more than 7.5 million meals were served through the program.

People experiencing food insecurity should call into Project Bread’s toll-free FoodSource Hotline (1-800-645-8333), which provides confidential assistance to connect with food resources, including SNAP benefits, in 180 languages and for the hearing impaired. For more information, visit: www.projectbread.org/get-help.

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