Massachusetts launches new summer nutrition assistance program
July 17, 2024
Starting next week, low-income families in Massachusetts with school-aged kids will get financial assistance to help pay for groceries during the summer months. The summer child nutrition initiative, announced by state health and education officials Wednesday, will provide $120 per child to help eligible families cover food costs when school is out and free school meals are not accessible.
The $70 million federally funded program will impact about 600,000 Massachusetts families, state officials said.
The benefit will “[make] sure that they’re able to buy food for their kids to eat at home, to eat at camp, to eat at the park, wherever they go,” Gov. Maura Healey said at a Wednesday afternoon media conference at Fales Elementary School in Westborough.
“It’s a win for families. It’s a win for stores in our local economies,” she added.
The initiative supplements recent state efforts to improve access to nutrition assistance for school-aged kids. The Massachusetts legislature has been funding a universal free school meals program since the 2022-23 school year. According to state officials, that program has helped Massachusetts public schools reach about 61,500 additional students with free lunch.
Advocates praised how accessible the new summer nutrition assistance benefit will be. The funds will be loaded onto “EBT cards,” which many families already have if they’re enrolled in programs like SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
That automatic step saves parents from having to find additional transportation to Summer Eats sites, which distributes free meals to school-aged kids at sites like local schools and community organizations.
“We know some kids don’t have transportation and they’re not able to get to those sites, so this summer program is such an important fix,” said Erin McAleer, the president of Project Bread, a Massachusetts-based food security organization. “Summer is a huge time of hunger in our country and in our state, and so this is another program that’s going to help fill that gap.”
Joining Healey at Wednesday’s event were Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Cindy Long, administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. The visitors toured a school garden where students help grow some of the produce that gets used in school meals during the year.
Families not automatically enrolled will have until Sept. 7 to apply.