Head of Greater Boston Food Bank says need could surge 70% under ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

BOSTON — Catherine D’Amato watched progress on President Trump’s signature policy legislation with concern. As head of the Greater Boston Food Bank, Pres. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” could significantly impact vulnerable populations and the food bank’s ability to provide for communities.

“Yeah, fair to say that all nonprofits are worried about this legislation,” D’Amato told Boston 25 News on Thursday, only hours before House Republicans passed the bill.

President Trump says he intends to sign the bill on Friday ahead of July 4th celebrations at the White House.

At its core, the package’s priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year.

To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people.

Critics say those cuts could rip Medicaid health care and food benefits from millions of people who, without them, would lean more heavily on charitable and non-profit private organizations, like food banks.

The Greater Boston Food Bank serves 600,000 people a month in Eastern Massachusetts, D’Amato says.

”We are anticipating that anyone who loses their SNAP benefit or their Medicaid health and food benefits will rely on the private pantry system,” D’Amato says. “It could be as high as 70% more going into the pantries… This will force more food-insecure individuals to turn to this very extended and underfunded hunger relief network.”

The food bank has already ramped up fundraising efforts in anticipation of changes, but D’Amato says a 70% surge in need would be almost impossible to manage.

“In order for us to be successful, it means immediate fundraising at a level that’s not attainable,” she says. “And this is true for all nonprofits that are going to have impacts based on this bill.”

Thursday, President Trump praised Republicans before a trip to Iowa to kick off Independence Day celebrations. Much of the prior week was spent getting hardline and moderate members of the party on-board.

“When you go over the bill, it was very easy to get them to a ‘yes’,” the president said. “We went over that bill and point after point, biggest tax cut in history, great for security, great on the southern border. Immigration is covered… It’s the biggest bill ever signed of its kind.”

The vote ultimately passed the House 218-214. All Democrats voted against the bill, along with two Republicans. Three more in the Senate voted against the bill, including Maine’s Senator Susan Collins, which forced Vice President J.D. Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote.

“I strongly support extending the tax relief for families and small businesses,” Collins said in a post on X earlier in the week. “My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.”

Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley slammed the bill and lawmakers who voted for it, writing on X: “Republicans have passed a bill that will be a death sentence—denying millions medical care, denying children food, & violently deporting immigrant families to destabilized countries. This is unforgivable.”

The Massachusetts GOP applauded the bill.

“This is historic legislation that delivers much-needed funds to secure our border and deport criminal illegal immigrants while offering the largest tax cut for middle-class families in years,” MassGOP chairwoman Amy Carnevale said in a statement. “The cost of living, especially in our Commonwealth, has never been higher, but thanks to President Trump our economy is roaring back from the Biden years.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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