Everett Community Growers is back in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger this year, and unlike a lot of nonprofit copy that lands in the inbox, this one points to actual local work people can see.
The Everett-based group will take part in Project Bread’s 58th Walk for Hunger on May 3. Under Project Bread’s Commonwealth Program, participating organizations keep 60 percent of what they raise for their own programs. The other 40 percent goes to Project Bread’s statewide work.
That split matters. It means this is not just a Boston Common photo-op with matching T-shirts. If Everett Community Growers hits its $1,000 goal, some of that money stays in Everett to support its own urban agriculture programs, youth food systems education, and the Youth Crew.
According to the announcement, ECG will have a team of 10 walkers and also plans an in-person walk in Everett.
Rebecca Kelley, the group’s director of programs, tied this year’s walk to a local milestone. “This year, we are especially proud to walk in celebration of 10 years of the Northern Strand Community Farm and our youth programs,” Kelley said. “For a decade, we’ve been growing more than food—we’ve been cultivating leadership, resilience and community-driven change.”
That is the kind of mission statement that usually makes your eyes glaze over. But in this case, Everett Community Growers does run Everett’s only community garden, community farm, and farmstand, according to the release. In a city where open land is scarce and a lot of policy talk gets detached from anything practical, growing food and training young people to do useful work is at least a concrete thing.
Project Bread President and CEO Erin McAleer put the broader pitch this way: “Every annual Walk, every dollar raised moves us closer to a Massachusetts where no family has to wonder where they will get their next meal.”
Fine. That is the statewide language. The more immediate local point is simpler: if a nonprofit based in Everett can raise money and keep most of it for programs people here actually use, that is worth noting.
Project Bread says last year, in 2025, 51 nonprofits raised more than $200,000 through the Commonwealth Program to support their own efforts and statewide food security work. The walk itself starts at 9 a.m. on Boston Common and follows a three-mile accessible route.
People can donate directly to Everett Community Growers at give.projectbread.org/ecg. Registration and general walk information is at give.projectbread.org/walk.
For people who need food help now, not speeches about food systems six months from now, Project Bread says its FoodSource Hotline at 1-800-645-8333 offers free and confidential help in 180 languages, including SNAP pre-screening and application help.
That is probably the most useful line in the whole announcement.