Amid Cuts, We Must Protect Programs That Reduce Child Hunger

"Being a teacher and a single mom, I have always been ok. I realized that inflation finally hit me, I've been in the red the last three months,” shared a mom from Haverhill. “There does not seem to be any help for me. I went from middle class to having to sell things in order to buy my son things. How can I not be eligible for SNAP? I go to three pantries, I've cut back. I don't know if I can keep this going." 

Stories like this are all too familiar. When children don’t have enough to eat, they suffer. 

We can all agree that everyone has a right to food. Alongside state, school, community, and healthcare partners, Project Bread is working hard to make sure everyone has enough to eat, especially children. Over the past few years, Massachusetts has made incredible progress towards ending hunger by passing Universal School Meals (USM), increasing cash assistance, expanding the Child and Family Tax Credit, and even leveraging MassHealth funds to pay for food for children and adults with complex medical conditions. And all this work has made a difference! 

Our colleagues at the Greater Boston Food Bank released their 2025 report that shows child-level food insecurity in 2024 was at 33%, a decrease of 6% from 2023 to 2024. However, 33% is still much too high and we must continue to work together to ensure all children in Massachusetts have enough to eat.  

Child hunger holds kids back from reaching their full potential. Children deserve consistent and nutritious food – and there are several programs that can provide food and assistance to kids across the state of Massachusetts. 

Not having enough to eat is harmful to children both immediately and in the long-term. Children experiencing food insecurity have higher rates of mental and physical health conditions, which leads to impaired growth and development. As adults, individuals who were food insecure as children are more likely to have chronic mental and physical health conditions and accordingly, lower academic achievements and reduced educational attainment. 

Children who experience food insecurity have: 

• Higher rates of anxiety and depression 

• Increased physical health issues such as anemia, vitamin deficiencies, and impaired growth and development 

• Increased behavioral issues such as aggression and reduced attention 

• Higher rates of hospitalization  

Long-term health consequences of childhood food insecurity include: 

• Higher risk for chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and obesity 

• Higher risk for mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders 

• Lower academic achievements and reduced educational attainment in adulthood 

• Project Bread led the Feed Kids Campaign and in 2023 Massachusetts became the 8th state in the nation to pass Universal School Meals (USM), making breakfast and lunch free to all K-12 students, regardless of income. 

• In 2024, on a typical day 63% of students received a free school lunch and 31% received a free breakfast thanks to USM (Project Bread). 

• As a result of universal free school meals, tens of thousands more children are participating in school meals daily. According to data from the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in October 2024 compared to October 2019, an average of 95,456 more children ate lunch and 76,868 more ate breakfast each day (Project Bread). 

• Districts supported by Project Bread's Child Nutrition Outreach Program have higher increases in breakfast participation than the state overall, suggesting that targeted support can amplify the gains already achieved through universal free school meals and further improve food access for children in Massachusetts (Project Bread). 

• Project Bread works with the Department of Early and Secondary Education (DESE) and community partners to provide free meals to kids during the summer through the Summer Eats program. 

• Summer Eats sites can be found across the state - in 2024, over 1,450 sites provided free Summer Eats meals to kids (Project Bread). 

• Summer Eats meals support students when school is out so families don’t need to worry about how they will feed their kids. 

• Since 2010, over 35 million meals have been served in July each year through Summer Eats in Massachusetts.  

• Summer meals have been a crucial support during particularly difficult times. In July 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 209,000 kids received a free summer meal on an average day. 

• SNAP reduces food insecurity among children (Mabli and Worthington, 2014). 

• In 2024, SNAP supported an average of 1.1 million people  – 1 in 6 households – each month to purchase food in Massachusetts.  

• More than 1 in 4 SNAP households in Massachusetts have at least one child. 

• Over 2.1 million children have been lifted out of deep poverty with SNAP – it is the most effective government assistance program available for protecting families from and lifting them out of poverty (CBPP, 2016).  

• Project Bread is a state-wide SNAP enrollment provider.  

• Medicaid is the primary source of health insurance coverage for children receiving SNAP (KFF, 2025). 

• Medicaid coverage is associated with positive health and educational outcomes for children (Eder and Ferguson, 2021). 

• Over 40% of all children in Massachusetts are covered by MassHealth (Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Massachusetts, 2024). 

• Food is Medicine programs, such a Project Bread’s Health-Related Social Needs Program, use MassHealth funds to provide families with food benefit cards that they can use to purchase food. 

Project Bread is proud to support these programs, which all work together to provide people and families across Massachusetts with the nutrition resources they deserve and need. These programs improve health, boost school attendance and performance, reduce healthcare costs, and reduce food insecurity. They make our Massachusetts families stronger.