BCYF Served 217,000 Meals in First Six Months of COVID-19 Pandemic

Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6477 · Meeting of July 22, 2026

Boston Centers for Youth and Families served 217,000 meals and kept all 36 community centers operational during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner William Morales, appearing on the public-access program Commissioner's Corner on July 22, described a rapid pivot that included home meal delivery, virtual programming, multilingual staff support at pop-up COVID testing sites, and the opening of two outdoor pools — all without a single reported COVID-related incident. Morales said the agency's multilingual staff, fluent in Haitian Creole, Somali, and Spanish, filled language gaps at testing sites that health institutions could not cover on their own.

Looking ahead, BCYF is in active discussions with Boston Public Schools to convert community center technology spaces into remote-learning pods for students in private, charter, and alternative schools who lack device access. Morales framed the agency's longer-term strategic direction, drawn from a planning process begun in 2019, as a shift from operating buildings in communities to becoming "a force for the community" — taking programming directly into neighborhoods rather than waiting for residents to arrive at a center.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 1,767 words

Source: the Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6477 meeting of July 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.