Photo: Kyle Bray/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — More than 4,000 people gathered on Boston Common Sunday to help raise funds to fight food insecurity with the nonprofit organization Project Bread.
"About 20 percent or one in five families with children are food insecure," said Erin McAleer, CEO of Project Bread. "Just for context, those are the same levels we saw in May of 2020 at the height of the pandemic when there was a lockdown and people out of work. The reality is that inflation has hit families really hard."
This year, the Trump Administration canceled over $3 million worth of food sent to Massachusetts food banks, and advocates worry that more cuts to food assistance programs are on the horizon. Organizations like Project Bread are looking to fill in the gaps.
"While we're facing rising food prices, while we're facing 20 percent of people being food insecure in our state, we're hearing proposals coming out of Washington D.C. to cut the very programs that people rely on," said McAleer.
Sunday's event was the nonprofit's 57th annual Walk For Hunger in Massachusetts. McAleer hopes participants will stay vigilant to the cause even after the event ends.
"The largest anti-hunger programs, school meals, SNAP, summer eats; these are programs that feed hundreds of thousands [that] have not been cut yet. So right now is the moment we need to be loud. We need to advocate," McAleer said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kyle Bray (@KyleBrayWBZ) has more.