Special to the Times-Free Press
Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata introduced a hearing order to discuss food access and sustainability models to address hunger in East Boston. Coletta Zapata’s hearing order comes following numerous conversations regarding the need for a central hub that supports the operations of numerous food access initiatives across the neighborhood.
“Since the pandemic, food insecurity has increased in East Boston and across the Commonwealth. Long lines wrap around the streets in extreme weather while our food pantries work diligently to get food directly into the hands of our most vulnerable,” said Coletta Zapata. “As a city, we’ve made transformative investments such as leasing a cold-storage facility to support food pantries and soup kitchens with a central place to store refrigerated foods. I’m hopeful that this conversation will allow us to build a roadmap to actualizing a potential space that will provide whole, nutritious foods in close proximity and help to solve hunger.”
East Boston residents face numerous challenges when seeking to purchase affordable, healthy, and sustainable food given limited retail options. Residents depend on numerous food pantries, soup kitchens, and mobile farmer’s market locations to access free meals and groceries. In Massachusetts, one in three hispanic or latinx families and children are food insecure. Fifty nine percent of East Boston residents are hispanic or latinx.
Councilor Coletta Zapata will bring city officials from the Office of Food Justice and numerous community stakeholders to identify service and operational gaps while exploring the concept of a food hub, or alternative models seen at the Dorchester Co-Op, or through private partnerships in Roxbury.
A date for the hearing will be noticed on www.boston.gov/public-notices and on the Councilor’s social media. Members of the public are encouraged to provide written or oral comments. For additional information, including how to testify, please contact the Office of Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata by phone at (617) 635-3200 or by email at [email protected].