Community Engagement

Co-creating hunger solutions

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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.

Impact Stat Background

Since 2021

$700,000

Invested in community-led hunger solutions

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students and administrators in roundtable on school meals Starts Line

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.

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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

project bread staff posing and smiling with vision statement

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

Addario Miranda shares lived experience with food insecurity at round table discussion about School Meals for All Starts Line