Community Engagement
Co-creating hunger solutions
OVERVIEW
Lifting-up Voices, Strengthening Solutions
Food insecurity is the result of years of racist policies and decisions that disempowers Black, Indigenous, people of color and other disenfranchised groups.
To address underlying inequities that contribute to food insecurity and food access, we strive to consistently listen and learn from the communities most impacted by food insecurity.
Knowing that the only way to achieve systemic and effective change is for solutions to be informed by people with lived experience, we convene people and organizations closest to the problem to co-create effective solutions.
Investing in Solutions
Empowering Community-led Solutions
Project Bread is committed to removing barriers to food access in every community in Massachusetts. We invest in communities to support organizations in creating sustainable, equitable, anti-racist, and community-led systemic solutions to address food instability in Massachusetts.
Because by supporting their work, we all get closer to achieving our shared mission of eradicating hunger in Massachusetts.
Since 2021
$700,000
Invested in community-led hunger solutions
Community of Practice
Working Together to Achieve Lasting Change
Project Bread is convening anti-hunger leaders from across Massachusetts to strengthen and empower community-driven solutions. By leveraging our partners' resources and our expertise, we can tackle these challenges together and improve community food access for the long term.
Our community partners are plugged into—or leading—their local hunger networks and food policy councils, are improving their local food systems through farmers markets, urban farms, and community gardening, and have been working towards food justice for years.
2023 Community of Practice
Brockton
My Brother's Keeper
United Way of Greater Plymouth County
Chelsea
La Colaborativa
East Boston
Central Assembly of God Food Pantry
Collaborative Parent Leadership Action Network
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Eastie Farm
Everett
Everett Community Growers
Fall River
Mass in Motion
Greater Fall River Partners for a Healthier Community, Inc.
Fitchburg
Empower Children for Success
Fitchburg Housing Authority
Holyoke
Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke
Let's Move Hampden 5210
Salvation Army of Holyoke
Lawrence
Groundwork Lawrence
Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, Inc. (GLCAC)
Merrimack Valley YMCA
Lowell
Mill City Grows
Lynn
Building Audacity
The Food Project
The Food Share Table
YMCA of Metro North
Malden
Templo dos Milagres Church
Mattapan
Greater Boston Nazarene Compassionate Center
Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition
New Bedford
Rhonda M. Fazio/Interwoven
Marion Institute
Quincy
Quincy Asian Resources
Quincy Community Action Programs
Worcester
El Buen Samaritano Food Program
Dismas House of Massachusetts
Regional Environmental Council
Thrive & Advocacy
Worcester Families Feeding Families
We must
Develop authentic relationships. Involve those with lived experience. Support community-driven solutions. Invest in sustainable and systemic changes.
“Our anti-hunger community in the Commonwealth is at the forefront of innovative solutions that can solve hunger permanently –and the progress is only accelerating.”
Erin McAleer, President and CEO of Project Bread
Good food is a basic right®
While our work is focused in Massachusetts, our models lay the groundwork to end hunger for everyone, everywhere, forever. We get closer to our goal every day – but we need people like you to help us achieve lasting change.
Council of Experts With Lived Experiences
Co-Creating Effective Solutions to Hunger
People who are or have experienced food insecurity best understand the stigma, the cracks in the system, the barriers to assistance, what solutions work and how to make them more flexible and dignified. In order to be effective, solutions must be informed by those closest to the problem — and the pain.
Project Bread is building a Council of Experts with Lived Experience, where individuals are empowered to harness their self-narrative, develop and share their stories and leverage their personal experience to play a key role in co-creating and implementing Project Bread's programs, campaigns, and policy agenda.
Meet the Council Experts 2023-2024 Cohort:
Levenia Furusa- Lowell
Giovanny Armando Zuniga Piamba- Chelsea
Paula Andrea Tobon- Revere
Kelly Russell- Boston
Yesenia Arroyo- Wales
Concetta Paul- Jamaica Plain
Elsa Flores- East Boston
