Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city of 40,000 people just north of Boston, is among the places in the country hardest hit by COVID-19, both from a health and an economic perspective. In April 2020, local community organizations and the City of Chelsea responded to the economic crisis facing jobless Chelsea residents by mounting an unprecedented food distribution effort. After five months of running its food distribution sites, the City decided to redirect its efforts in September 2020 toward distributing financial support so that residents could purchase their own food using cash cards through a program called Chelsea Eats. By combining city general revenue funds, state aid, and philanthropic contributions, the City assembled enough resources to distribute Chelsea Eats cash cards to approximately 2,000 households and to replenish the cards on a monthly basis for a total of nine months.
A research team from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston led by Professor Jeffrey Liebman has been conducting the analysis of this cash assistance effort to learn about the impact of the project.
Please see below for publications about the project.
Publications
Randomized unconditional cash transfers improved diet quantity and quality in a low-income community in Massachusetts, USA
Nature Food (January 2026)
This paper describes the impact of the Chelsea Eats program on diet. It finds that the recurring unconditional cash transfer reduced caloric deficits and improved intake of nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed meats.
Effect of Cash Benefits on Health Care Utilization and Health
Journal of the American Medical Association (July 2024)
This paper describes the impact of the Chelsea Eats program on health, using data from electronic health records. It finds that there were significantly fewer emergency department visits among those assigned to receive the monthly cash benefit compared with the control group, including fewer emergency department visits leading to hospital admission and fewer emergency department visits related to behavioral health and substance use. There were more outpatient visits to subspecialists, particularly for individuals without a car.
The Chelsea Eats Program: Experimental Impacts (December 2022)
This paper describes the experimental impacts as measured in the final participant survey.” It finds that the treatment group had higher food expenditures, greater consumption of fish and fresh meat, and greater food satisfaction than the control group. The treatment group also had lower levels of financial distress. There were no impacts on the two pre-specified downstream outcomes: child school attendance and self-reported physical/mental health.
Chelsea Eats Study: Card Spending Update (May 2021)
This report describes the stores and vendors where program participants spent their Chelsea Eats funds. We have analyzed anonymized data on card spending for purchases that occurred between November 24, 2020 and March 2, 2021 on 2,001 Chelsea Eats cards.
Chelsea Eats Study: Findings From the Baseline Surveys (March 2021)
This is the first report from the Chelsea Eats study, presenting results from two baseline surveys conducted in September and November 2020. It describes the circumstances of Chelsea Eats applicants just before the financial assistance began.
In the News
The Boston Globe: "Chelsea is about to become the country’s biggest experiment in giving out no-strings-attached checks" (October 2020)
Other Media
"Chelsea Eats: Evaluating Cash Transfers in Chelsea, MA amid Covid-19" (2026)
Produced by J-PAL North America, this video highlights the impacts of Chelsea Eats and key lessons learned. Featuring interviews with researchers in the J-PAL network, Professor Jeffrey Liebman and physician and health economist Sumit Agarwal.
"Raising the Floor" (2024)
A documentary film explores the Chelsea Eats program and how the Chelsea community navigated the crippling effects of the pandemic.