A breakfast of popcorn and grape juice at 103 Whipple Street. This morning meal was simply a fun treat for Elizabeth Dugan and her siblings. Later, they would realize that it was served out of necessity as her parents stretched what the 11-member family had until payday. Living on her father’s salary as a teacher, her parents were frequently creative to ensure the family didn’t go without. It was a modest, but happy upbringing.
Elizabeth went on to become a social worker and is currently the Clinical Director for BMC’s Violence Intervention and Advocacy Program (VIAP). Over the course of her career, Elizabeth has witnessed how food insecurity impacts families, especially children. “When kids have to go hungry – it impacts their academics, their social-emotional learning, and really everything about their development,” she says. When she learned of the Stop Hunger Now specialty license plate, it immediately resonated as a way to support the patients we serve at BMC and the wider community. Elizabeth and the VIAP team spent a lot of time during the pandemic delivering food and resources to families experiencing food insecurities, identified as one of the biggest issues during the height of the pandemic.
Stop Hunger Now, a specialty license plate program in partnership with The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) and Citizens, raises funds for critical food access initiatives at both BMC and GBFB. To commemorate everything her parents did for Elizabeth and her siblings and the great memories she has from growing up, Elizabeth selected license plate 103 to match the street number of her childhood home. Elizabeth wants to Stop Hunger Now so every family in our community has access to the nutritious food they need to thrive.
“Hunger is a global issue, but there are so many families right here in Boston who are struggling to put food on the table,” says Elizabeth.
With Boston Public Schools on summer vacation, for many families, this means summer hunger. Without school meals to bridge the gap, nutrition is a growing concern. Want to help?
Pre-register for a Stop Hunger Now License Plate
Visit stophungerma.org. We’re on our way to the RMV benchmark of 750 sign-ups, and we will begin producing the license plates as soon as we reach it!
