Cambridge hopes to start distributing $50 grocery gift cards to food stamp recipients by the end of this week after the City Council on Monday approved allocating $250,000 to help low-income residents who haven’t received their November benefits. The Cambridge Community Foundation is contributing another $250,000 in concert with the city.
Of the total, half will pay for the gift cards, spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said. Another $200,000 will go to eight nonprofit food pantries in the Cambridge Food Pantry Network to pay for additional food and increased capacity “to respond to the increased need” expected to materialize because of the cutoff of food stamp benefits. And $50,000 will be used for transportation of food by Food For Free “and other needs.”
Update on Nov. 8, 2025: The city last week did announce a plan to distribute the grocery gift cards at low-income senior housing developments and at the the high school, even while food stamp recipients were being whiplashed by court decisions. First, a district court judge ordered the federal government to fund November food stamps in full, then a Supreme Court justice paused that decision to give time for an appeal by the government to be considered.
Massachusetts officials began loading full payments onto recipients’ cards used to buy food immediately after the first decision and continued until Friday, but governor Maura Healey said Saturday that the state is assessing the impact of the Supreme Court pause, The Boston Globe reported.
Cambridge, however, is going ahead with distribution of the $50 grocery cards, city spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said Saturday.
The payments by the state have “no bearing on the city and CCF’s distribution of funds. They’ve been allocated and gift cards will begin being issued to eligible Cambridge individuals and families as planned,” Warnick said.
The need for help was clear Wednesday as dozens of people stood on line on Inman Street waiting to get into the weekly food pantry offered by the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee, Cambridge’s antipoverty agency. “I blame the president,” said one woman who said she hasn’t received her November food stamp allocation. “To take food away from people who need it, especially people with small children …”
At a time when food prices are soaring, food pantries such as the one operated by CEOC are “very important,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “At least we have something we can turn to.”
Anthony Flammia, 61, who said he has been coming to the CEOC food pantry for two years because “it helps carry me through,” didn’t get his expected food stamp benefit on the first of the month, he said. “It’s stressful. It’s not right,” Flammia said.
His hope that things will change? “Slim,” he said.
Meaningful act
Rose Vital said she comes to the pantry twice a month and is looking for help applying for food stamps. Cutting off or reducing November payments is “not fair,” she said. Vital said she needs the food provided by the CEOC pantry because grocery prices are high and “I don’t have much money.”
City manager Yi-An Huang and other city leaders acknowledged last week that the $500,000 is “a stop-gap measure,” but Huang said it is meaningful in that “the community is coming together – the city in partnership with the Cambridge Community Foundation and the Cambridge Food Pantry Network.”
The city money is coming from a $5 million fund added to the budget to deal with potential funding shortfalls caused by Trump administration policies or other unknowns. There are other candidates besides food stamps: The Head Start program providing prekindergarten classes in Cambridge and Somerville to 183 children will run out of federal funding at the end of this month, said Community Action Agency of Somerville executive director David Gibbs. And the fuel assistance program helping Cambridge and Somerville households keep warm is now limiting benefits to clients who have no heat or a small supply of heating oil.
Ten thousand residents
As for food stamps, 6,700 Cambridge households with an estimated 10,000 people in them get food stamps under a long-standing federal program that helps low-income families and individuals pay for groceries. Money for the program was to run out at the end of October unless Congress authorized continuing the aid, and Congress wasn’t operating because of the government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture initially said it would use a contingency fund to pay for food stamps this month but reversed course, warning that recipients would not get their November payment. Last week two federal judges ordered the government to continue food stamp funding. Uncertainty persists; the Trump administration has agreed to pay recipients only half their benefit, and officials have said it could take weeks or even months to process payments.
Details on how the grocery gift cards will be distributed were being worked out Tuesday. Warnick said the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee will “administer” the initiative and CEOC associate director Rachel Plummer said the city will publish question-and-answer instructions for getting the cards. Residents eligible for food stamps who have children, are older or who are disabled will get priority. Previously city officials said the schools, the Cambridge Housing Authority and the Council on Aging could be involved.
Housing authority
Cambridge Housing Authority executive director Michael Johnston said the authority doesn’t collect information on whether its housing and Section 8 residents have food stamps, but based on income, 863 single elderly or disabled residents living in CHA housing and 953 rent voucher tenants in the same category were potentially eligible for food stamps.
Johnston said he provided the numbers to city and CEOC officials planning the response. He also told planners that the agency’s workers could access housing authority developments and that the authority could “get the word out to our residents/participants” about the cards.
It’s not clear how the city is planning for use of the $5 million fund overall. Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui asked last month what priorities the city has for using the money; she did not get a definitive answer.
More obstacles
Besides threats to Head Start, fuel assistance and another food program that helps low-income families with young children, known as Wic, changes to the food stamp program next year could make it harder to qualify for help and stay enrolled. Advocates have warned that stricter work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks could result in many recipients losing their benefits.
Warnick was asked whether there is a group within city government that’s considering responses to Trump administration funding threats that are known at present. “The city’s leadership team is working closely with staff and community partners to identify appropriate responses to the various threats that are at play,” he said.
The $5 million Federal Grant Stabilization Fund “has created flexibility to respond to possible funding cuts and support long-term stability for various programs. This important fund allows the city, in the event of potential funding cuts, to maintain important services for vulnerable residents while looking for alternative long-term funding sources for city programs. If there is a loss of federal grants, the Federal Grant Stabilization Fund can be leveraged to address these gaps,” Warnick said.
How to get and use the cards
Food stamp recipients can get a $50 grocery card if they are 60 or older, disabled or have children under 18 who attend Cambridge Public Schools, a Cambridge charter school, the Cambridge preschool program, or have a younger child. The city has posted detailed information here on how to get the cards and where they can be used.
Cards for families who are current SNAP recipients with children in public schools or the city preschool program will be distributed at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School field house entrance from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday and Nov. 14; and and at the main entrance entrance from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 15. Families must show their EBT card and provide the child’s name. Families will get one grocery card for each eligible child. The cards will be distributed first come, first served.
Families with kids in charter school should contact the school; those with children younger than preschool should contact Cynthia Woodward, the family services coordinator at the Center for Families at cwoodward@cambridgema.gov or call (617) 349-6327.
Grocery gift cards for older or disabled adults with food stamps will be handed out at Cambridge Housing Authority, Just A Start and Home Rehab Inc. buildings on dates announced by the developments. Cards will also be distributed at the North Cambridge Senior Center from 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 18; and at the Citywide Senior Center in Central Square from 9 to 11 a.m. Nov. 21.
The grocery gift cards are single-use and can be applied to purchases at Market Basket, Star Market and Target.
Residents interested in supporting emergency food access work can donate to the Cambridge Community Foundation’s Urgent Needs Fund, a pool of resources from donors that enables the organization to continuously respond to urgent needs in the community. Donate here.
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