Advocate for MEFAP!

On April 8, 2015, The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) hosted their annual legislative breakfast on Beacon Hill in support of the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP). This year, the Food Bank Coalition of Massachusetts (which includes the GBFB, the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and the Worcester County Food Bank), is advocating for an increase in funding to $20M in the FY16 budget. This is a $5M increase over last year’s $15M funding we received. Last year, with this funding we were able to provide $16M healthy meals to those in need. With this additional $5M funding, the Food Bank Coalition of MA will be able to provide an additional 7 million more healthy meals through our network of over 565,000 food insecure residents of the state. MEFAP provides funding to purchase high-nutrient staples such as meat eggs, dairy products, peanut butter and fresh produce. It also supports the economy by purchasing healthy and nutritious food from local vendors and farmers. In FY14, MEFAP funds were used to purchase approximately 60 different types of products from over 50 vendors. MEFAP funds were also used to purchase produce from as many as 30 farms in Massachusetts through the Mass Grown Initiative program. State Legislators and member agencies from all over Massachusetts came out to support the increase and learn more about MEFAP. This year at the breakfast, we honored two Advocates of the Year. Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante and Senator Daniel Wolf were acknowledged for their unwavering support of our work to end hunger here. To learn more about why MEFAP is so important or to sign up for our advocacy alerts, please visit our Advocacy page.