Advocates urge council to restore food‑access funding after small contracted‑services reduction

Liza Wasserman, director of the Office of Food Justice, told the council April 22 that the office’s FY27 request includes personnel and contracted services lines plus $500,000 from participatory budgeting to support neighborhood food access programs.

Wasserman highlighted recent accomplishments: nearly $428,000 in farmer’s‑market coupons last year, expansion of the Double Up Food Bucks program to additional stores and ARPA‑funded cold storage grants that added more than 133,000 square feet of refrigerated capacity for food recovery partners. She said those investments helped organizations distribute recovered food and weather federal SNAP changes for vulnerable households.

Councilors pressed staff on a reduction to the contracted‑services line described in the hearing as roughly $200,000–$204,000. Wasserman said the line item is a general operating pool used to contract with many community partners and that the office is prioritizing supports that stabilize core operations. "We are prioritizing the places where we are supporting critical infrastructure," she said, adding the office is seeking philanthropic and federal matches where possible.

Public testimony underscored the stakes. Gregory Maynard of the Boston Policy Institute asked the council to hold a budget hearing for the Office of Historic Preservation (a separate oversight request) and called for attention to community priorities. Elena Stefan Berger and Alex Taubman, representing ABCD and the Boston Food Access Council respectively, warned that cuts to discretionary spending would reduce access to fresh food at moments of rising need. Taubman said, "City investments in affordable and accessible food are not discretionary but imperative."

Wasserman and other staff told council members they aim to preserve summer programs: the farmer’s‑market coupon program and current coupon distribution this summer will continue at current levels, she said. Officials said some program timing depends on federal grant windows — for example, a federal match for Double Up Food Bucks is due to end in late June — and that the city is planning to apply for further competitive federal funds where feasible.

What to watch: council members may propose amendments during the FY27 review to restore or reallocate discretionary contracted services funding; advocates asked the council to prioritize farmer’s‑market coupons and Double Up supports when considering amendments.