Boston City Council to explore publicly-owned grocery stores

Local News

Rising prices and impending SNAP disruptions mean that a discussion about publicly-owned grocery stores is more necessary than ever, some officials say.

Could publicly-owned grocery stores be feasible in Boston? It’s a question that the Boston City Council is set to explore in depth soon, after a majority of the body showed support for a hearing order about the topic Wednesday.

“We live in the richest country in the world, and there are children and young people and elders going to bed hungry at night. While there’s an abundance of food, we are literally plowing thousands of tons of food into landfill,” Councilor Liz Breadon said as she introduced the hearing order.

Publicly-owned grocery stores could be valuable tools in helping residents burdened by rising food costs and those potentially facing the loss of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Breadon said.

Food prices in August 2025 were more than 3% higher than in August 2024, according to USDA data, and prices are expected to continue to rise in 2026.

At the same time, SNAP benefits are set to be disrupted by the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law earlier this year. Some 40,000 SNAP recipients in Greater Boston are likely to be subject to more restrictive work requirements, according to an analysis from Boston Indicators. While many of these people will be able to demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements, some will not. In addition, the new administrative burden will likely dissuade otherwise eligible recipients from pursuing their SNAP benefits.

Food insecurity is surging in Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Food Bank’s new annual report found that 37% of Massachusetts households faced food insecurity this year, up from 19% in 2019.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune cosponsored the hearing order, saying that officials should look to examples in Atlanta, Wisconsin, and Illinois. She advocated for a broader discussion about ways in which the city can support nonprofit grocers, citing the closure of Daily Table stores around the city earlier this year.

“immediately is the time to have these conversations,” Louijeune said. “This is a timely conversation to explore our fragile food network.”

Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, another cosponsor of the hearing order, urged her colleagues and constituents to view food access as a basic human right.

“We talk about housing as a human right … and the city and the state gets involved in that. Food is also a basic human right: access to healthy, nutritious food,” she said.

Councilors Julia Mejia, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Ben Weber, and Brian Worrell also added their names to the hearing order. It will be the subject of a future discussion where city officials, nonprofit workers, and others will be asked to answer questions posed by City Council members.

The worth of publicly-owned grocery stores became a hot-button political topic this year after Zohran Mamdani surged to a surprise victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who is immediately the frontrunner to become New York City’s next mayor, has advocated for a program that would build five municipal grocery stores.

“Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers,” Mamdani’s policy platform reads.

Breadon’s hearing order makes no mention of Mamdani, and he was not mentioned during Wednesday’s meeting.

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