As part of our Women’s History Month blog series we are lifting up Nancy Wyse, with whom Food For Free maintains a valued partnership through her work as Family Liaison at Cambridge Public Schools District.
As a child growing up in Amherst, Mass., Nancy Wyse was an avid reader who thought that she would grow up to become a professor. As she began to lean more towards books that shed light on people’s cultures and life experiences, however, she realized that she wanted to work directly with people rather than simply observing their lives through the pages of books.
After obtaining a degree in Literature from Earlham College, Nancy began working in a community mental health day treatment facility to conduct group therapy with adults. While working this job, she went back to school part-time for a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boston College, and then afterwards worked as a counselor for groups of adolescents. After her son was born, she began working at Cambridge Public Schools District (CPSD), where she still is today. Throughout her career, Nancy has leaned on character traits that are often associated with women, such as empathy, collaboration and active listening, to deepen her impact.
After working a few jobs within the CPSD network, Nancy settled into the role of Family Liaison at Kennedy-Longfellow Elementary School (KLO), where she has now been for 12 years. It was here that she became instrumental in the development and rollout of some of Food For Free’s student-focused programs, such as Weekend Eats Carrot Cards and School Markets, through close partnership and collaboration with the organization. For Nancy, the KLO partnership with Food For Free is the most impactful partnership that she forged in her current position.
“Many people think of Cambridge as a city with very little need, but you see a different side of Cambridge in the public schools,” shared Nancy. “It is an extremely expensive city and many people struggle financially, even with subsidized housing and other financial support. Adequate, healthy food is often sacrificed for shelter and bills. It is very hard to focus and learn when you are hungry!”
Cambridge Public Schools, through Nancy’s work, began their partnership with Food For Free when the nonprofit took over the Cambridge Weekend Backpack Program, which supplied students who relied on school meals as a primary source of nutrition with weekend meals and snacks. Alanna Mallon, who created the backpack program and is now Cambridge Vice Mayor and Food For Free Cambridge Community Relations Liaison, floated the idea of starting free food markets at schools to Nancy. With Nancy’s recommendation, KLO was happy to pilot this new program.
Over time, the KLO School Market grew into a popular community event, and School Markets is now an official and growing program at Food For Free, with 11 different partner sites across Cambridge and Somerville, including both public charter and district public schools. The schools host monthly markets for the school families and members of the community to access free food, including several pantry staples, produce, and other fresh foods. In 2022, School Markets served 3,187 individuals across 925 school families in Cambridge and Somerville.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, school shutdowns meant that students who relied on school meals suddenly experienced a sharp increase in food insecurity. Nancy collaborated closely with Food For Free to help the organization execute a nimble response to shutdowns by extending home food deliveries to some CPSD families. After schools reopened, the organization worked with Nancy to facilitate food box pickups in lieu of markets to adhere to the pandemic era public safety regulations.
During the pandemic, the Weekend Backpacks program pivoted to become the Weekend Eats Carrot Cards, which are reloadable debit cards that provide families with $25 per child, per month to buy groceries, allowing families to select their own culturally familiar and preferred foods. Nancy was in close communication with the Food For Free Programs team throughout this transition period to ensure that proposed solutions made sense for Cambridge students and their families.
Now, in the post-pandemic era, School Markets are back up and running, and afford families who participate in the program a higher level of food sovereignty by allowing them to make more choices on what they bring home from the markets. The Weekend Eats Carrot Cards became so popular that the reloadable cards are here to stay. Because of Nancy’s interest in issues in food insecurity and her close work with Food For Free in setting up the School Markets program, she has continued to be the primary bridge between CPSD and Food For Free and is a valuable resource to the nonprofit as someone who understands the problems with student food insecurity locally.
“Food For Free trusts the Liaisons to refer families that need their support. This trust is key because we can offer help to students without being overly intrusive of their financial situations,” says Nancy. “Food For Free is providing both food and dignity. The guiding assumptions are that everyone has a right to fresh, healthy food and there should not be food waste when others are in need. While so many agencies are bogged down in bureaucracy, Food For Free is able to quickly, creatively and efficiently feed a large subset of Cambridge.”
When reflecting on Women’s History Month, Nancy calls to mind Alanna Mallon as an inspiring woman role model for the way that Alanna identifies problems, and then gets to work researching, networking, and creating actual programs that can serve as solutions. Alanna taught Nancy not to be afraid to try things out, even when you don’t have all the answers.
Nancy exemplifies the same compassionate drive as she advocates for Cambridge students and builds partnerships to explore solutions to the problems they face.
Thank you, Nancy, for your close partnership and collaboration with Food For Free, and for being so instrumental in helping us find and test creative solutions to the problem of hunger in the community!
