The Food Project hires teens ages 14–18 at $15 an hour to grow crops. Localize app founder Zephyr Zoidis said in an Instagram post that the nonprofit grows 200,000 pounds of food; The Boston Globe reports a large share goes to hunger relief.
The Food Project’s summer program has brought teens from Boston and nearby suburbs together since 1991. The Boston Globe says participants work across 70 acres. The nonprofit sells affordable produce in Boston’s Dudley neighborhood and Lynn; its website says its markets were among the first in Massachusetts to accept electronic SNAP benefits and pilot a matching program later adopted statewide.
In Massachusetts, 34% of households said they lacked or could not afford enough food each month. A Greater Boston Food Bank study cited by the Globe, based on more than 3,000 adults surveyed from November 2023 to March 2024, found food insecurity especially common among Black, Hispanic and Alaska Native communities, college students and LGBTQ people. The Food Project also installs 100 raised-bed gardens annually for households and organizations; its Boston Farms and Greenhouse manager said cost is often the barrier to buying fresh produce.
