Worcester, Leominster food programs to benefit from state grants

WORCESTER — It may be one of the smaller grants awarded last week by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, but the recipient, 2Gether We Eat, a Worcester-based farming partnership between local schools and the nonprofit, is no less vital.

The $5,823 will serve to build a safe storage area for the protective equipment students participating in the program wear when they work in the enclosed environment of the freight farm, said 2GetherWeEat founder Charles Luster.

“We don’t use herbicides or pesticides, and kids can bring in bugs that can lay eggs,” Luster said, adding that the farm has had experience with invasive insects and has lost crops to the marauders. There’s an added benefit, Luster said. “It makes the kids feel more like scientists when they wear the protective gear.”

The program was integrated into two Worcester city schools, with third graders at Elm Park Community School and first graders at Vernon Hill School participating. It consists of two sections. The first has 2Gether We Eat staff teaching a six-week course on the basics of hydroponic farming. The second six-week session has them working in the farm.

“We’re teaching them a new way of growing food,” Luster said of the partnership.

The grant was awarded through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Urban Agricultural Program, created to support community garden plots and other urban agriculture initiatives throughout the state. Funds awarded through the program support expansions of urban farms and community gardens to increase food production and direct more fresh and healthy products to low- to moderate-income residents in their communities.

Other grants awarded statewide by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources total $8.2 million distributed through four programs including the Urban Agriculture Program, Local Food Policy Council Program, Massachusetts Food Ventures Program and Local Food Purchase Assistance Plus Program. A complete list of recipients is available on the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources website.

“These programs focus on access and equity,” said Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle. She explained that they collectively support access to locally-grown, healthy food through supporting local food policy councils and working food groups, expanding retail outlets and distribution channels, and supporting the distribution of locally-grown food to underserved Massachusetts communities.

“Combined, these four MDAR programs make our local food system more resilient by increasing food production in areas that have traditionally been food deserts,” Randle said.

As farmers continue to face challenges from external factors including climate change, the weather and labor issues, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources is responding with grants that help address food insecurity that create ways for the state’s farming community to increase production, improve their industry and open the door to greater access for consumers.

Healthy, nutritious food on every Mass. table

Together they aim to put healthy and nutritious food on every dining table in the state.

While the COVID-19 pandemic served to connect many Massachusetts residents to local food systems, lining them with farmers markets, farm stands and farm cooperatives, a return to normal has also meant a return to shopping at supermarkets.

“In 2022, people reverted back to their old habits,” Randle said.

A portion of the grants is aimed at disseminating information about the availability of locally-grown foods and to break the perception of its high cost. Supermarket products, in terms of freshness and nutrition, availability and taste, cannot compare to locally-sourced foods.

Three separate grants to Growing Places in Leominster, totaling more than $500,000, embody the different emphasis and focus of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources programs. The first grant, $16,271, was awarded through the Local Food Policy Council Program and focuses on continuing to build an equitable, sustainable and accessible food system in the northern reaches of Central Massachusetts. It will help increase awareness of the availability of local food while also increasing access to local products.

The second grant, $30,000, awarded by the Massachusetts Food Ventures Program, is aimed at expanding the organization’s food hub and improving its storage and delivery systems. Overall the grants awarded by the program support infrastructure improvements to local food processing centers, from outfitting communal kitchens to supporting packaging projects.

The third grant, totaling $487,687, was awarded through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Plus Program and will bolster the organization’s Local Food Works Fresh Box Plus Program, which unifies more than 130 local food distribution systems throughout the region and distributes food directly to consumers through a network of partners and mobile distribution sites.

$7M passthrough grants from USDA

A sizable chunk of the total $8.2 million in grants, some $7 million, is a passthrough grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Randle said. The grant supports the direct purchase of food and products from underserved farmers — farmers who identify as Black or of color, and farms owned by veterans and women — and distributing the products for free in underserved communities.

The state has also invested heavily in food literacy programs that reach youngsters while still at school, teaching them to become savvy consumers and know what is in their food, especially as the cost of food rises.

“A box of cereal can cost $7 to $8 now, when for the same price, one can buy fresh, local foods that are more nutritionally dense and higher in proteins,” Randle said. The state was the first in the nation to launch a brand promoting local products: “Massachusetts Grown… and Fresher.” Other states have followed in its footsteps.

“The 10 'Buy Local' organizations do a great job working with farms, producing recipes and ways to incorporate seasonal crops into dishes,” Randle said. “It’s up to the growing community to keep residents aware of local farms and where to purchase food and how best to support them.”

The grants dovetail with the 21st Century Agriculture Commission, a multiagency group formed to increase Massachusetts food independence and resiliency, to tackle diet-related illnesses from heart disease to diabetes, and to eradicate hunger in Massachusetts by 2030. Ancillary goals include preserving and extending land dedicated to food production in Massachusetts and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Randle said the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources is planning to launch a new division of food security that will align with sister organizations working on food and farm issues throughout the state.

“We’re all working towards the same goals,” Randle said of the commission, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and the different agencies in the community, and local and state governments.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Funding to strengthen local food systems, ties between growers, public