Case Study 3 - School Food, YMCA, Local Restaurants and the USDA
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in person learning for schools across the country. The closure of schools disrupted access to the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs, which provide two free/reduced price meals a day to over 30 million public school students across the country (including about 500,000 in Massachusetts). In response, the USDA issued waivers relaxing the typical regulations on school food service operations, extending the Summer Meals program through Sept. 2021. The new operating flexibilities allowed for grab & go pickup, multi-day food boxes, and permitted friends/family to collect meals on behalf of a child. It was a quick way to empower schools and community partners to get food into the hands of those who need it most, wherever they may be. However, despite the increased flexibility in meal service guidelines, there remained major barriers to access: families didn’t have transportation to meal distribution sites, hours of operation conflicted with online learning schedules, and the menu offerings relied heavily on packaged, shelf-stable food that did not reflect the cultural preferences of communities.
The situation in Chelsea, MA was no exception: the Chelsea Public Schools went from serving over 80% of their 6,255 students daily pre-pandemic to only serving 30% during the first three months of the pandemic, leaving a gap of nearly 4,000 students without school meals. Chelsea has been particularly hard-hit by Covid: it has had some of the highest infection rates in the world, and Chelsea residents have struggled to find work as service- and hospitality-sector jobs have vanished. In addition, Chelsea as a large population of undocumented residents who are ineligible for federal relief programs like SNAP and unemployment insurance; USDA-funded school meals, however, are available to all families regardless of immigration status, making them essential lifeline for families struggling to make ends meet.
With the onset of the pandemic, we became deeply concerned with the sharp increase in food insecurity among MA residents. Through our work with the Massachusetts Food Security Task Force we got connected with Chelsea City Manager Tom Ambrosino and his team, and worked together to outline a multi-pronged food relief strategy, including leveraging the USDA Summer Meals waiver extensions to feed 4,000+ Chelsea kids who were left underserved due to school closures. We dug into the data to understand the need, and set an ambitious goal: our goal was to build a scalable meals program, fully funded by the USDA summer meals program, bringing nutritious, delicious, and culturally relevant meals to Chelsea kids in a multi day to-go box – all prepared by local restaurants.
In order to make our vision a reality, we needed three things: 1) a food vendor, 2) a fiscal sponsor to manage the USDA relationship, and 3) distribution sites.
First up, we had to locate a vendor who could produce high quality meals that met the USDA regulations while servicing the community demand. We were looking for a partner with ample production / kitchen space, logistical expertise, and the ability to scale, but who could also create a delicious and culturally relevant menu, hire local staff, and who understood our vision for the program. In a moment of pure serendipity, Francis Gouillart from Stock Pot Malden–a culinary kitchen incubator–reached out to us inquiring about ways they could help support the food work we were conducting in Chelsea. We got started working together to develop menus, decipher the USDA meal guidelines, and figure out food logistics and preparation. Once all of our ducks were in a row, we located a 16’ refrigerated truck to rent for transferring meals from the kitchen to the distribution locations while keeping the food fresh. Throughout the process, with the help of chef-owner Lorena Lorenzet of Farm Girl Fresh (one of the restaurateurs based out of Stock Pot Malden, and also a mother in the community), Stockpot produced beautiful and delicious food that reflected the cultural makeup of Chelsea’s residents while remaining under the federal subsidy cost per meal, running the entire program at cost for the benefit of the community.
In addition to a food vendor, the Chelsea Eats program needed a fiscal sponsor. All USDA Summer Meals programs require a fiscal sponsor to facilitate and oversee successful operations in communities while reporting back to the Department of Secondary Education and the USDA. We approached the Greater Boston YMCA, who supports summer meals programs across Boston, to see if they’d be willing to sponsor the Chelsea program. They agreed, and we have been fortunate to benefit from their expertise.
Finally, we needed to find places to distribute food: by working with the community, we were able to partner with local organizations to assist with distribution and marketing to the community while finding strategically located distribution sites. The first two sites we partnered with were Salvation Army and Temple Emmanuel in Chelsea. Both organizations were eager to host the programs and increase food access–their encouragement, feedback, and generosity has been integral to the success of the program.
The Chelsea Eats program has been operating since June 2020. On our first day we served 200 meals and sold out. Now, we serve 33,000+ meals every week across 7 sites in Chelsea. We have closed the meal gap by 60%, and it’s getting smaller every week.
In addition to feeding kids, the program has brought reliable, scalable income to local businesses. As the program grew Stock Pot needed more help, so they began hiring individuals from the community. They built relationships with parents who, while picking up food from the distribution sites for their children, would indicate they were looking for work. Stock Pot is now fully staffed with residents from across the local Chelsea community. And, these relationships don’t end with the pandemic: the YMCA connection provides a bridge to other opportunities for years to come.
We are now working to scale the Chelsea Eats statewide in partnership with Massachusetts YMCAs. We are now serving meals at over 15 sites (and growing!) across the state. All it takes is YMCA sponsorship, a local restaurant, and local distribution sites. In January 2021 we launched three new sites in New Bedford, Fall River, and Wareham in partnership with YMCA Southcoast and local restaurant BoneTown BBQ. While we have begun to make an immediate positive impact in the YMCA Southcoast communities, we still have a long way to go with closing the gap: these communities are currently serving 75% fewer meals than they typically serve during a normal school year.
Our success has influenced programs in Boston to replicate our feeding model in order to reduce costs, staffing concerns, and logistical burdens while providing high quality food. We believe this can be replicated state- and country-wide, and shows the power of creating public and private partnerships while leveraging sustainable funding through federal and state sources.
The Shah Family Foundation’s primary role throughout this initiative was to act as the connector between private and public organizations to accomplish our vision of closing the meal gap sustainably–and locally–using the USDA budgets. Our decisions were heavily data influenced, while relying on partners’ expert advice to help us make educated decisions. In addition, we acted as project managers who oversaw the successful implementation of the vision, projected future costs, all while managing timelines and expectations. In order to get the project off the ground, it required initial seed funding to support start-up staffing, refrigerated truck rental, and initial food expenses over the federal meal subsidy amount while vendors scaled up. After the upstart of the program, we were able to run the program entirely within the USDA summer meals reimbursement.
At the Shah Family Foundation, we believe that providing nutritious, delicious, and culturally relevant food to all students daily is something every student has a right to enjoy. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to expand this program statewide and to provide these much needed food resources to students and their families during these extraordinary times.
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