Mayor Wu and US Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern visited the Nubian Square location of the Daily Table grocery store last Wednesday to highlight the chain’s importance in addressing food insecurity in the region.

They also spoke out in support of more federal and local funding to help low-income shoppers buy fresh fruits and vegetables at a discount.

Federal support that helped to subsidize the Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program, which gives EBT cardholders an additional 50 percent off certain items, ended on Sept. 30.

Daily Table officials say the temporarily paused the popular discount program in four of their five Boston area stores because they were denied grant funding that previously supported the program. They hope to re-start it when new grant funds become available.

According to Sasha Purpura, the CEO of Daily Table, the loss of the federal dollars is having a negative impact on thousands of Boston families who were eligible to use it before. It’s also a challenge for the Daily Table’s three Boston locations, including the original store in Dorchester’s Codman Square and a newer one in Mattapan Square.

The DUFB program has been primarily funded by Boston and Cambridge and the USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. 

Cambridge is currently funding the program, which is allowing for the discounts to continue for shoppers at the store’s location in that city.
“We need to bring that [DUFB] back, because people choose what they want to choose, and Daily Table is about choice. We need to bring back the tools that enable it to happen,” said Purpura. 

Since the slash in federal grants, Pressley said, she has personally witnessed customers having to put some of their produce back because it’s too expensive.

“We don’t want that. That’s such a demoralizing experience, and it’s just so important that no one knows the pangs of hunger. Health is wealth,” she said. 

The grocery store chain with five retail stores in the Boston area was founded by Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s, in 2015 to provide affordable and nutritious groceries. Every item on Daily Table’s shelves is SNAP eligible, down to the premade food and smoothies.

According to Daily Table’s own statistics, their five stores served 207,513 Massachusetts residents in 2023. They also served 242,205 “SNAP-eligible” meals last year— and report an 84 percent increase in produce purchased by SNAP customers so far in 2024. Roughly one-quarter of the chain’s customer base use SNAP benefits.

Boston’s Office of Food Justice (OFJ) and Daily Table are developing a collaborative plan to restart the program at the three Boston store locations “as soon as Daily Table’s current USDA grant cycle is complete,” explained an OFJ spokesperson through email. 

At the event last week, Wu thanked Daily Table staff for taking the “extra weight” off people’s shoulders, especially those burdened by the high food costs and with limited time to prepare a full meal. 

“We know that the three Daily Table locations in Boston are the lifeblood for so many of the residents in our city,” said the mayor. “Following the model that you all have set up here of giving as much agency, options, and dignity to all of our residents in the most important thing of keeping the families fed and healthy and sustained.” 

Little Leaf Lettuce, a locally grown lettuce company, is one of the vendors available at Daily Table as well as at higher-end retailers such as Whole Foods. Through their partnership, Daily Table is able to offer Little Leaf Lettuce to customers at a discount.

Another positive byproduct of Daily Table’s operations is that it takes some of the pressure off food pantries with limited stock and options.

“We are lifting a load off of the emergency food system and helping it be more of an emergency food system and not a daily necessity,” said Purpura. 

“Daily Table has created a solution that doesn’t set up a separate area to say, “I’m low income and I need your help.” It equalizes the shopping experience. Anybody can shop here.”

McGovern, who joined in the visit to the Roxbury store, said the Double Up Food Bucks program was one of the “key pillars of the Biden-Harris National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to ensure that every American can eat a delicious, healthy meal every day.

“These programs are foundational for strong families, and we need to make sure they are funded, supported, and sustained at every level. I’m proud to stand with Daily Table, Mayor Wu, and Rep. Pressley as we fight for food justice in our neighborhoods and across America.”

Pressley said she and her delegation colleagues hope to reverse cuts made to SNAP in their next session, hopefully in concert with a Harris-Walz administration.

“Food nutrition is not a nice [thing] to have, it’s a must have. It is a humanitarian crisis and moral failing. It is a policy choice,” she said.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article reported that cuts in funding to the federal SNAP program trigged the current pause in Daily Table's Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program. This article has been amended to reflect Daily Table's explanation that they were not awarded a federal grant that funds the DUFB program in four of its stores.