TURNERS FALLS — As the Summer Eats program at the Gill-Montague Regional School District gets underway, Congressman Jim McGovern visited Unity Park on Monday to tour the meal site and meet with local officials.
McGovern visited the meal sites in Turners Falls and Leominster as part of the 12th annual Summer Food Rocks Tour that highlights the statewide program as part of Summer Eats Awareness Week. Summer Eats gives free meals to children and teens while school is out during the summer, with no registration or identification required.
In Montague, the Unity Park meal site will be operated Monday through Friday until Aug. 14, with breakfast from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The Carnegie Public Library at 102 Avenue A is also a meal site for breakfast and lunch, and runs at the same time as the Unity Park site. There are also meals available at The Brick House Community Resource Center, The Heartwing Center and Hillcrest Elementary School, but with different operating hours and meal options.
Erving Elementary School at 28 Northfield Road will be a meal site until Aug. 7, with breakfast from 8:15 to 8:45 a.m., followed by lunch from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Need for nutrition
Summer Eats is a federally funded program administered through the Summer Food Service Program. State governments and local school districts oversee the local programs for communities across the United States. In Massachusetts, the program is overseen by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), which partners with the food security nonprofit Project Bread to help support the program statewide.
During McGovern’s visit on Monday, around 40 children were there for the lunch service. Erin McAleer, president and CEO of Project Bread, said she heard kids commenting about the “mini trees” they were eating, which was the broccoli on the menu that day, along with strawberries, a turkey and cheese sandwich on a pretzel bun, and milk.
“This is a really good meal,” McGovern said. “Our kids are 100% of our future, and it’s important they get a healthy start, and this is one way to ensure that.”
Notably, this is one federal program that has not been cut, McAleer said. However, as McGovern pointed out, it is still important to call attention to summer meals amid cuts to other federal programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“There’s a lot that’s happening in Washington [D.C.] that is wrongheaded, and we need to stop,” he said. “These programs should be expanded, quite frankly.”
According to Children’s HealthWatch, a Boston-based nonpartisan network of pediatricians, public health researchers and children’s health policy experts, one in four children in the United States are part of families participating in SNAP, and kids benefit from this program through increased food security, better health outcomes, improved health for caregivers and alleviated economic strain.
Additionally, according to the Food Research and Action Center, SNAP is a connection point to the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program, which is similar to the summer meals program, but provides $120 in grocery benefits for the summer. Some states have opted out of this program; Massachusetts has not.
Despite the cuts to federal programs, Summer Eats remains strong. According to Project Bread, in 2025, nearly 3 million meals were served at more than 1,500 sites statewide, with more than 73,000 kids eating at least one Summer Eats meal on an average day in July. This year, Project Bread has granted more than $250,000 to Summer Eats sponsors statewide, including the Gill-Montague Regional School District.
“We rely on [McGovern] to be a champion and advocate for us down in Washington D.C. to make sure that these child nutrition programs that are so vital continue to be funded, and so that’s important,” McAleer said.
“Summer Eats is about so much more than just providing a meal,” Gill-Montague’s interim Superintendent Tari Thomas said in a statement about the event on Monday. “It’s about livening up every kid’s summer — filling their bellies with good food and filling their days with activities that get them out, up and moving together.”
Taking out the guesswork
Abby Pease, food services director for the Gill-Montague Regional School District, said that in 2025, the district saw upwards of between 50 and 75 children and their families participating in the Summer Eats program.
“More people are taking advantage of it,” Pease said about people coming to the meal site. “Grocery store prices are just too high.”
Last Thursday, before the Fourth of July holiday, Pease said there were 80 kids served, not counting the campers from the Montague Parks & Recreation program that day.
Pease said she’s updated the menu with new options, moving from hot foods to cooler foods, but she is still keeping a popular chicken and waffle breakfast option and pizza subs on Fridays, with food all locally sourced.
By updating the menu and expanding food choices, Pease said it exposes kids to more options, and helps them understand what the food as a whole looks like by leaving the tops on strawberries, or leaving some of the green on top of carrots.
Montague resident Michelle Bamnjo said visiting the Summer Eats site is a near-daily activity for her family. On Monday, she was there with her two children, plus two kids she was watching that day. For her, the program is a “double whammy,” providing a place for her kids to get a nutritious meal, but also a spot where they can play together as a family.
“It’s a good location for families, because their kids can play, they can get a meal, and also it takes out the guesswork of having to prepare a meal for your kids,” Bamnjo said.
When asked about what McGovern can do to best support the Summer Eats program, Pease said the best thing is to help get “more resources for more local products.”
McGovern said he’s focused on increasing food security for everyone, young and old; reversing decisions like cuts to SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and restoring the Farm to School program.
“We have a Congress and a White House right now that doesn’t seem to share those values or those priorities,” he said, “so we have to do damage control in the short term, but then have to pave the way to get this right, if the political powers shift.”
