2023 Nonprofit Professional of the Year: Erin McAleer

By Amanda L. Cole

NonProfit Professional of the Year

Erin McAleer

Project Bread
President and CEO

Erin McAleer wants to ensure everyone in her state has access to food. As CEO of Project Bread, Massachusetts’ only statewide anti-hunger organization, she has doubled her staff since the pandemic’s surge in food insecurity and more-than-doubled the fiscal year budget since 2017. Her dedication to the organization’s mission and efforts to eliminate hunger one Massachusetts resident at a time has earned McAleer NonProfit PRO’s 2023 NonProfit Professional of the Year Award.

As people across the country have to make tough household decisions amid rising costs due inflation, McAleer and her nonprofit have played a key role in making food more accessible across the state.

“Erin McAleer has led the statewide response to an unprecedented magnitude of food insecurity, through service, advocacy and thought leadership as the pandemic, inflation and economic turmoil have hit residents hard,” McAleer’s nominator said.

No matter what she’s working on, McAleer spreads awareness of health, educational and economic disparities that perpetuate poverty and hunger as she advocates for solutions. She mentors young women through Big Sister Association and Thrive Scholars (formerly Noonan Scholars), in addition to serving on the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center board and the Citizens’ Housing & Planning Association Policy Leadership Council.

Prior to joining Project Bread, McAleer worked in a variety of government and private-sector roles. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from College of the Holy Cross and Master of Social Work in community organizing, public policy and administration from Boston College.

“McAleer’s colleagues praise her strategic and collaborative approach to any challenge, especially with tackling food-insecurity for the masses, by going to the root of the issue,” her nominator said. “Her holistic view of poverty is informed by her background in social services, in government, and her personal experience with food insecurity, all of which inspire her to collaborate across social sectors to promote access to basic rights, like food.”

In her six years at the helm of Project Bread, she has increased its operating budget from $6.2 million to $14.5 million. In just the last three years, she expanded her staff from 35 to more than 80 people — some of whom now support increased staffing for its FoodSource Hotline that, since 2022, has provided one-on-one food and nutrition support to more than 17,000 people, including about 3,600 needing assistance in a language other than English. Additional staffers helped develop a newly created department focused on state and federal policy advocacy.

To achieve results, she teams up with local partners, like government entities and legislators, health centers, schools, and other hunger relief organizations.

For example, in August, she advocated via Project Bread’s Feed Kids Coalition to help pass legislation to make the pandemic-policy of free school meals permanent beginning in the current school year. As a result, Massachusetts became the eighth state to enact such a policy.

Additionally, over the past two years, her wins include increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications by 25%; incorporating a diversity, equity and inclusion lens into the organization’s strategic plan; creating new programs, such as a Health Care Partnerships program and Community Engagement department; and overseeing research on racial and ethnic disparities in food access.

“This combined one-two punch of working with statewide partners to provide residents direct access to food in real time, while also working with policymakers to ensure the statewide response addresses the systems that keep people hungry, is what sets McAleer and Project Bread apart,” her nominator said.