Celebrating 10 Years: $5.5 Million Invested into the Eastern Massachusetts Community

In the 10 short years since we introduced our Community Investment Grant Program, GBFB has invested $5.5 million in our partners. These resources were an intentional strategy to help increase the capacity across Eastern Massachusetts to serve more clients, distribute more food—including more perishable and healthy food—and to assist underserved communities where hunger relief resources are either unavailable or unable to meet the need.

Since we launched the program in 2013, grant funding has grown annually from $20,000 to more than $850,000, with grants made to agencies in 136 communities, and every county in Eastern Massachusetts.

Over the years, grant categories and priorities have evolved with our network’s needs. In FY21, we added service to communities of color as a grant priority. In FY22, we introduced organizational funding, which allowed agencies to apply for one-time funding for new operational costs. More recently, we added additional priorities to the grant-consideration process—service to communities disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, inclusion of client voice, and demonstration of community engagement.

And this past holiday season we also offered, for the first time, $2,000 in direct funding to all 600 agencies to use however they saw fit.

See how one of our partners, Project Just Because, put GBFB Community Investment funding to use.