Seeing the struggles of immigrant-owned businesses and an increasing number of food-insecure residents in East Somerville, Rev. Jordan Harris of the Connexion United Methodist Church saw an opportunity to address both issues at once by founding the East Somerville Community Bites program.
A collaborative effort between Connexion and East Somerville Main Streets, Community Bites provides $15 meal vouchers redeemable at five participating restaurants: Olá Café, Lotus Xpress, Rei Da Picanha, Los Paisanos Restaurant and Sister’s Caribbean Restaurant. The program relaunched during the last week of January after a three-month hiatus due to changes in funding.
“We tried to make [obtaining the vouchers] as low-barrier as possible,” Lindsay Allen, executive director of ESMS, said. “The only restriction of the program is [that] you can only have up to two vouchers a week.”
The initiative was created in response to a multitude of concerns in the neighborhood. Allen highlighted that East Somerville is home to a large immigrant population.
“About 30% of [our residents are] people born outside of the United States … [and] our businesses are 70% immigrant owned,” Allen said.
Many of those businesses have struggled, especially over the past year. According to an ESMS biannual financial health survey conducted in December 2025, a significant amount of East Somerville businesses reported a decline in revenue compared to the previous year.
Harris cited rising attendance at Connexion’s weekly community meals as evidence for the growing need for a program like Community Bites. The program was first launched as a two-month pilot funded by $3,000 from the Tufts Community Grant program in May 2025. From August to October 2025, organizers distributed 195 vouchers and partnered with three restaurants — Olá Café, Lotus Xpress and Rei De Picanha — that were already frequently providing food to residents in need for free.
“I can’t really overemphasize the fact that we are honoring the generosity that already exists in our community,” Harris said. “The restaurant owners that we work with in particular are folks that we know who have already been helping folks.”
Alan Chen, the owner of Lotus Xpress, said his restaurant already provided free meals to those in need, making the impact of the program tangible for participating restaurants.
“There’s definitely people who come in here who are less fortunate. We’ll provide them free hot and sour soup or free fried rice,” Chen said. “We just [try] to do what we can to help out. Now that we’re getting paid for it, it’s awesome. … It’s a very difficult time for small businesses and restaurants, and any little bit helps.”
Chen described the program as “transparent,” emphasizing its apparent impact.
“I think it’s a great program … because people know where the money was spent,” Chen said. “In a way, everybody wins, because people who are less fortunate get the meals … [and] we’re direct beneficiaries of that support from these vouchers.”
Both Allen and Harris emphasized the unique “dignity” the program provides recipients.
“There’s a level of dignity that’s involved in this program. … Families get to go out to [eat] … culturally appropriate and relevant food. … It’s food that they would eat in a country that they immigrated from,” Harris said. “It provides folks with a wealth of choices and the opportunity to eat out, which is just something that folks living in poverty don’t always necessarily get to do.”
The pilot program ran out of funding in October; however, the need for it did not.
“We had folks still coming and asking for vouchers,” Harris said. “People were still going back to those restaurants and asking for food [but] just didn’t have a way to pay for it.”
Following delays in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the federal government shutdown, the city sought ways to address food insecurity. Community Bites became one of several food programs funded by Somerville’s Office of Food Access and Healthy Communities in November and was allocated $50,000 in community benefit funds. The program officially restarted in January and expanded to include Los Paisanos Restaurant and Sister’s Caribbean Restaurant.
Since relaunching the program, both Allen and Harris have noted that demand has grown rapidly, with Harris noticing “an exponential growth in requests”
“It’s growing faster than we were anticipating. For example, we were guesstimating [distributing] 110 vouchers a month … but we’ve already [given out] 110 [this month],” Allen said.
Looking ahead, Allen and Harris are hoping to fundraise and pursue additional funding to sustain and expand the program.
“We really want to see the program stick around and grow,” Allen said.
In the meantime, Harris said the response to Community Bites as well as Connexion’s other initiatives has shown how residents are looking out for one another.
“I’ve definitely seen folks from all walks of life and all areas of Somerville come together to build relationships with one another, to check in on each other, to share resources across the board … to make sure that everyone … has a way to access some of the things that they might need in this current moment,” he said.
