Boston Eyes City-Run Groceries to Fight Food Insecurity

In response to soaring food insecurity and federal aid cuts, Boston is officially considering a plan to establish city-run grocery stores, a move reported by The Boston Herald. The proposal, from City Councilors Liz Breadon and Ruthzee Louijeune, would create grocery outlets that operate for community need, not for profit.

• A recipe for crisis: The push comes as 37% of Massachusetts households now face food insecurity, a dramatic jump from nearly 20% in 2019. The urgency is amplified by cuts to the federal SNAP program and follows the high-profile failure of the nonprofit grocery chain Daily Table, which recently closed its doors blaming rising food costs and a lack of funding.

• The public option playbook: Boston isn’t alone in considering a public option, which has a mixed record nationally. While Atlanta recently opened a city-supported market, Kansas City shuttered its publicly-owned store after it cost taxpayers millions. In New York, a similar idea has been floated by a mayoral candidate.

For now, the measure is headed to a hearing where city officials must decide if the promise of feeding residents is worth the gamble of a costly public experiment.

• Also on our radar: The debate over public groceries is just one of several civic experiments in Boston, where the city is also using a participatory budgeting platform that allows residents to vote on how public funds are spent. Meanwhile, after deciding against a city-run store, Chicago is now exploring smaller-scale public market pilots as its own solution to food insecurity.