Governor Maura Healey announced a partnership with the anti-hunger nonprofit Project Bread to help more child care and afterschool programs across Massachusetts provide meals and snacks to children through a federal nutrition program. The initiative is designed to increase participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, known as CACFP, and follows a recommendation from the governor’s Anti-Hunger Task Force.
“No one should go hungry in Massachusetts, especially at a time when President Trump is making it harder for families to afford the food they need,” Healey said, adding that the state would keep working to connect residents with food and support. She said the task force had identified ways to reach more children and make fuller use of federal nutrition programs, and described the Project Bread partnership as putting that work into action.
CACFP reimburses eligible child care centers, afterschool programs, emergency shelters, and adult day care programs for the meals and snacks they serve. Afterschool programs can use the money to offer snacks or supper to children and teens alongside enrichment activities. The task force called for more outreach in communities with low participation and added support for programs that want to take part.
State officials said the goal is to remove the obstacles that keep eligible programs from signing up. “We know that some of the programs that could benefit most from federal nutrition resources can also face the greatest barriers to accessing them,” said Education Secretary Steve Zrike, who said the effort would combine the expertise of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with Project Bread’s experience working directly in communities.
Under the partnership, Project Bread will work with DESE to identify barriers to participation, reach out to eligible programs, and offer direct help to new and existing participants.
That assistance includes training to strengthen meal service, help building nutritious and appealing menus within tight budgets, and support for the infrastructure a program needs to run the food service.
The administration pointed to figures showing room to grow. Massachusetts has seen a smaller drop in overall CACFP participation than the country as a whole, 3 percent compared with 6 percent nationally, but the number of suppers served through the program remains below where it stood before the pandemic. According to the administration, Massachusetts programs served 1.2 million suppers in 2016 and nearly 760,000 in 2024.
Project Bread, which has worked on food insecurity in the state for decades, said it would guide programs through the process of becoming CACFP participants. “All kids deserve reliable access to food, in and out of school,” said Project Bread President and CEO Erin McAleer, who said the organization was proud to expand its long-running work with DESE so that “no child in Massachusetts has to wonder where their next meal will come from.”
Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll said the aim is to make sure the programs families count on have what they need.
“By working together, we can help more programs access federal funding and make sure more kids have healthy food throughout their day,” she said.
The administration described the partnership as part of a broader effort against hunger. Officials said the Fiscal Year 2027 budget signed by Healey includes $338 million to address hunger and strengthen food assistance, and noted that the administration has made universal school meals permanent and expanded outreach to help residents enroll in and keep their SNAP benefits.
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This article was originally written in English. Other language versions are produced using AI translation software, and errors are possible — the English version is authoritative. CTN also uses AI to convert text into audio.
