A young boy waited while his family gathers food at the Brazilian Workers Center food pantry in Allston.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff
Nearly a million Massachusetts residents who receive federal food assistance will get more money to spend on groceries starting in early February, welcome relief in the midst of an increasingly urgent hunger crisis.
The federal stimulus package passed last month by Congress increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by 15 percent across the country from January through June. Those benefits, which amount to an additional $27 per person per month, will make a big difference, though they remain temporary and are calculated using low costs for food, especially for a high-cost state like Massachusetts, anti-hunger advocates said.
This hour on
Radio Boston, we revisit some of our favorite conversations on one theme: charity.
The pandemic has disrupted our economy, and left millions of Americans without work. Many are struggling to put food on the table for themselves and their families. Even in good economic times, budgets can be tight and so many of our neighbors go without. We revisit a conversation with Vicky Negus, a policy advocate with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and Shannon Yaremchak, who once relied on SNAP to feed her family, about food assistance.
Boston has a long history with charity, going all the way back to at least the 1840s, when a ship loaded with food left Boston Harbor and sailed to Ireland. The U.S.S. Jamestown set sail to help with the great famine, in what became the first example of American humanitarian aid abroad. Boston historian Steven Puleo tells the story of how our city led the way in humanitarian aid then, and mapped a blueprint for America to lead on global aid.