City councillor Alanna Mallon says she is seeking a second term. (Photo: Alanna Mallon via Twitter)

City councillor Alanna Mallon announced Wednesday that she would run for reelection in November, becoming the first incumbent to declare. This is her first term on the council, with one of her most prominent roles being as an advocate for the arts; her leadership of a new Mayor’s Arts Task Force began in December, after work to keep musicians in the EMF Building failed.

Mallon grew up in Brockton, where her family experienced poverty and food insecurity but she benefited from “an activist municipal government and the social safety net programs it promoted,” she said in campaign materials. She has lived in Cambridge with her husband and two children for 15 years, during which she founded the Cambridge Weekend Backpack Program, which sends food home with hundreds of low-income students. That led to her hiring as education liaison to then-mayor David Maher.

She announced a reelection kickoff event to be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. May 15 at Atwood’s Tavern, 877 Cambridge St., East Cambridge, with RSVPs to [email protected].