LYNN — The Food Project North Shore, based in Lynn, has been awarded $5,000 from the Attorney General’s office to create summer jobs for high school students.
The New American Association of Massachusetts, another Lynn-based organization, which assists newly arriving refugees and immigrants with integration into American society, was also awarded grant funding for the same purpose.
The Food Project and the New American Association are two of 73 organizations across the state that have been awarded nearly $300,000 in grant funding from the Attorney General’s office through its “Healthy Summer Youth Jobs Grant Program.”
The funding was awarded to organizations that plan to hire young people for jobs that are focused on health and wellness, such as those that promote good nutrition, physical fitness and healthy living.
“Our summer jobs program provides teens across the state with an opportunity to challenge themselves, build new skills, and make a difference in their own communities by promoting healthy living,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.
“We’re pleased to be continuing this program this summer and we are grateful to our grantees for making important adjustments to their programs during this unprecedented time to ensure employed teens are safe.”
The Food Project plans to use the grant, along with additional funding the organization has also received from the F1rst Jobs and Workforce Investment Board, to hire 10-15 high school students, said John Wang, regional director of The Food Project North Shore.
Wang said The Food Project is hiring teenagers for virtual jobs that are concentrated in marketing and advertising.
Some of the work involves helping the organization develop a new hybrid program since the organization can’t run its typical summer program and connecting with other local food justice organizations around the state, Wang said.
The number of new hires that will be made this summer is down significantly, Wang said, as the organization usually creates 35-40 summer jobs for youth with the funding it receives each year from the Workforce Investment Board.
“It’s more of a safety issue for us,” said Wang. “Our circles have been affected by COVID in a lot of ways so we just want to make sure folks are safe.”
The jobs that teens will undertake are important, Wang said, as most of the Food Project staff is on farms for the summer. The organization can usually count on a few hundred volunteers to help out, but much of that labor had to be suspended due to the coronavirus, he said.
The Food Project is still figuring out how to adjust its operations in these new and “very interesting times,” Wang said, but noted that it was important for them to keep their summer jobs program running this year.
“I think a lot of folks are facing a lot of economic hardship right now, especially folks that are economically impacted by COVID,” said Wang. “That’s been a key component of us continuing to move forward with the virtual work.”
Natasha Soolkin, executive director of the New American Association of Massachusetts, said she was grateful to receive $3,366 in grant funding from the Attorney General’s office, which will enable the organization to hire two young people on a full-time basis this summer.
The New American Association has been receiving grant funding from the state program on an annual basis since 2015, and typically opts to hire young people who are related to their clients because of their familiarity with how the organization’s programs work and their desire to help their parents, Soolkin said.
The teenagers would be providing tutoring and other support around healthy living, such as dancing, meditation, and making face masks. For the masks, the hires will also help to provide education on why they are helpful, Soolkin said.
“We’re very grateful to the Attorney General’s office. For many years, we were getting this money to help the families through their kids and to help the kids work,” said Soolkin.
Other local organizations that received funding from the Attorney General’s office include the YMCA Metro North in Peabody and Camp Fire North Shore in Salem.
The Healthy Summer Youth Jobs Grant Program is funded with health care and fair labor related settlement money from the Attorney General’s office.