Improving Food Accessibility in East Boston: City and Community Partners Collaborate
BOSTON (November 18, 2024) – Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata held a hearing at the Mario Umana Academy School to discuss food access and address hunger in East Boston. During the hearing, Councilors and community members heard from representatives from the Office of Food Justice and GrowBoston: Office of Urban Agriculture regarding their work to address food access and enact systematic changes to the city’s food system.
“East Boston is experiencing some of the highest rates of food insecurity in Boston. We face numerous challenges relating to accessing affordable, nutritious food. This hearing allowed us to highlight the incredible work our local partners have taken on since the pandemic to ensure the community has access to nutritious food and discuss operational challenges such as limited storage space, logistics issues to distribution due to delayed deliveries, and limited space to grow operations,” said Coletta Zapata. “We will continue this work in partnership with these organizations, the Office of Food Justice and GrowBoston: Office of Urban Agriculture, to secure city infrastructure that takes the burden off of our partners while also expanding the reach of food accessibility in Eastie.”
The representatives from Boston’s Office of Food Justice and GrowBoston shared that East Boston is one of the four priority neighborhoods in the city where food accessibility work is focused. Forty-three percent of Boston’s residents faced some level of food insecurity in 2023 and the impact of the pandemic continues to be felt among residents. In addition, the city has an urban agricultural ambassador program in East Boston to support Eastie Gardeners with technical assistance and other resources. The city is in the early stages of exploring expanding rooftop farms to increase food production.
In addition, representatives from YMCA East Boston, Maverick Landing Community Services, La Colaborativa, NeighborHealth, Eastie Farm, Mutual Aide Eastie, and GreenRoots were present to share their experiences establishing food pantries and weekly food distributions to support residents with limited resources and persisting operational challenges. Many advocate organizations stressed that they started their food distributions during the pandemic and have continued to operate following the growing demand across the neighborhood. Representatives also shared that due to the growing need across the neighborhood and city, a single organization cannot take the lead, and therefore, having a distributive model where organizations can have access to infrastructure to support the growing need is necessary.
Coletta Zapata sponsored this hearing to gain insight into successful food hub models, learn how they have been developed, and explore ways to replicate them in East Boston. In the upcoming year, the Councilor will continue the conversation, advocate for additional investments to support neighborhood food pantries and explore creating a centralized food hub or alternative model in East Boston.
This docket was referred to the Committee on City Services and Innovation Technology chaired by Councilor Enrique Pepen (District 5). A recording of the hearing can be found at: youtu.be/X9gKXwFq8I8
For additional information, please contact the Office of Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata by phone at (617) 635-3200 or by email at gabriela.ramirez@boston.gov.
