Congressman says meals programs must be defended following federal cuts

State officials joined U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern in kicking off the 11th annual Summer Food Rocks Tour with stops in Greenfield and Orange on Friday, when they met with community members and advocated for continued federal funding for meals programs.

Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, and Pedro Martinez, commissioner of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, visited a Summer Eats lunch site at Greenfield High School and the site at Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange alongside McGovern, who highlighted the importance of federal nutrition programs in reducing hunger.

“But I’m also a little bit angry that I have to be here to tell you we have to defend these programs. … There’s a target on these programs,” McGovern said in Orange. “This ‘Big Ugly Bill’ that just passed Congress cuts SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits) by close to $200 billion. Tens of millions of people are going to see their benefits reduced [and] millions are going to lose their benefits altogether.”

Summer Eats, also known as the Summer Food Service Program, is a federally funded, state-administered program that provides free meals to children up to age 18 while school is out of session. This year, the statewide food security nonprofit Project Bread granted $236,482 to Summer Eats sponsors statewide for their program development and capacity-building. This includes equipment to transport meals or increase kitchen efficiency and meal quality, as well as staffing support and items to enhance site engagement, outreach and promotion efforts.

Dozens of families convened in the Mahar cafeteria on Friday for a meal that included baked crispy chicken and fresh vegetables. Activities like cornhole were held outside. A grant has enabled adult meals to be served cafeteria-style in Orange.

“I think all of us would agree that it is deeply important and impactful that in Massachusetts we have free school lunch and breakfast, made permanent by the Healey-Driscoll administration. That is important, but that’s 9½ months out of the calendar year. What happens during the summer months?” Tutwiler said after McGovern addressed those who had gathered outside Mahar. “When that final dismissal bell rings for the summer, in a lot of households there’s a lot of angst around what they’re going to do to support their children and the people that they care for, around food and nutrition. But that’s where programs like this come in.”

Jennifer Lemmerman, Project Bread’s chief policy officer, said one in five households in Massachusetts struggle with food insecurity during summer vacation.

“We were really glad to see that child nutrition programs, specifically, weren’t directly cut [in the federal budget], which is wonderful,” she said in an interview. “The concern for us is that for child nutrition programs, many of them — including federally funded universal school meals — kids are automatically qualified for those free meals by their participation in SNAP and Medicaid. And what we know is that those programs were cut drastically. And so, when we see reduced participation in SNAP and Medicaid, we’ll see reduced qualifications for programs like this one.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.