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Issue #41 | April 2023
Supporting collective action
toward an equitable, sustainable, resilient, and connected local
food system in Massachusetts.
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Things you can do right now to
support systemic policy change.
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Talk about the budget
It’s state budget season! Watch for House budget debate to begin in mid-April - see article below for details. Right now is a great time to reach out to your legislators with requests for local budget needs.
Learn about the budget
Wondering how the budget process works, or how to advocate for state funding for food system needs? Join us for a webinar about what’s under consideration in the FY24 budget on April 18 at noon. Register here.
Attend Ag Day
Ag Day at the State House is April 12! The speaking program begins at 11:15 and Taste of Massachusetts starts at noon. Details are here.
Discuss APR
MDAR is holding listening sessions around the state on the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program in April and May. Details are here.
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Highlights of the
Collaborative's work.
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State budget season begins, with opportunities for advocacy
The House will begin debate on a budget for FY24 this month. There will be discussion on funding for many food system programs, and many opportunities for advocacy over the next several months. Read this article on our website for a timeline of the process and a list of food system budget priorities we’re following.
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HIP lobby day is May 9
The Campaign for HIP Funding will be back in the State House on May 9 for the first time since 2019! The Campaign is advocating for $24 million for HIP in the fiscal year 2024 budget. HIP usage is expected to continue to grow as families struggle to afford food, and it is essential that the program have enough funding to meet demand. HIP is more critical than ever with the end of federal emergency allotment SNAP and high inflation affecting low-income households’ budgets. At the same time, DTA added 107 new farmers to the program in 2022, increasing access to the program in areas of the Commonwealth where access had previously been limited. These additional farmers means many more SNAP households will have access to the program this growing season, making it even more critical that enough resources are available to fully fund the program! Please join us at the State House at 10:30 am on May 9! Register here.
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HIP vendors receive program updates
DTA held its annual HIP vendor meeting on April 4. With more than 240 attendees, many farmers were eager to hear answers from DTA on technical questions, and from fellow farmers about their experience with the program.
- Laura of Silverwood Organic Farm in Sherborn talked about bringing HIP to the new Framingham farmers’ market, where she worked with enthusiastic HIP shoppers to spread the word about the program. She has increased her attendance from every other week to every week at the market to serve more customers, and has been visited by the Mayor and the State House delegation.
- Alane from Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton spoke about encouraging customers to pick their own produce from the orchard. Park Hill also offers a wide variety of HIP-eligible products, like sliced watermelon, apple sauce, and fruit roll-ups, that her customers really enjoy. She describes the program as a rebate or reimbursement, which helps her customers understand the program better.
- Kelsey from the East Boston Farmers’ Market commented that the majority of their customers use SNAP and HIP and they’re grateful to be a HIP vendor, as it has made a huge impact in the neighborhood.
Updated program impact numbers were shared: HIP has served more than 188,000 households since 2017, who have spent $46 million on fruits and vegetables directly with local farmers. In 2022 alone, there were more than 280 HIP vendors, 500+ HIP points of sale, and 29,333 HIP households served.
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Massachusetts advocates continue the work of the White House Conference
Following last September’s historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, Project Bread brought together many of the state attendees, who are leading on various statewide and local policy efforts, to map out a path to end hunger in Massachusetts by 2030. The Collaborative is participating in this effort.
This group, which includes advocates, food relief organizations, health care, food retail, agriculture, academics, elected officials, and individuals with lived experience, used the White House Conference pillars as a baseline to identify five state pillars that will guide the Massachusetts plan to solve hunger.
Massachusetts is already leading on, or on the cusp of, some of the most impactful solutions to hunger within these pillars. In January, the group wrote a letter to the Healey administration and the state legislature, recommending immediate actions items, such as implementing permanent free school meals for all kids, robustly launching a Common Application to allow households to simultaneously apply to as many public benefit programs as possible, boosting family tax credits and cash assistance programs, and appointing a high-level administrative official to coordinate a cross-agency response to solving hunger in Massachusetts.
The goal is to broaden this initial statewide group of stakeholders to build out the state roadmap, as there are a lot more voices who need to be at the table - particularly those with lived experience and community leaders. There are many existing coalitions across the state that are leading on anti-hunger and anti-poverty issues, and those need to be lifted up, rather than duplicated. The long-term goal of the group is to draft a Massachusetts version of the White House roadmap to solve hunger by 2030.
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Inspiring work being done by some
of our friends in Massachusetts.
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Berkshire Grown
Berkshire Grown, the Buy Local organization in the most western part of the state, recently received funding for two new programs to further connect local farmers and low income shoppers in the county. The first project, funded through a Local Food Purchasing Assistance Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, will enable Berkshire Grown and its regional partners in this grant to purchase food from local farmers, with a focus on BIPOC farmers. The produce is stored in the walk-in cooler and freezer the organization recently purchased, and volunteers from Berkshire Bounty will transport the food to more than a dozen pantries. The organization works closely with the pantries and the farmers to ensure that they are providing the right type and quantity of food. This project builds on the group’s Share the Bounty program which was established in 2010 and provides CSA shares to low income families, and the farm to food access program, established during the pandemic, in which Berkshire Grown purchased large quantities of food from local farmers.
A second collaborative grant, from the USDA’s Regional Food System Partnerships Program, will help establish two locally-sourced mobile farmers markets to bring fresh local food to areas of the Berkshires that are underserved by grocery stores, farmers markets, and food pantries. Berkshire Grown is currently learning from partners and the community and plans to have the vehicles on the road this fall.
Berkshire Grown also provides technical assistance and workshops for farmers. The group helps facilitate farmer-to-farmer peer mentoring groups - one of which has been meeting for four years, while another is in its second year - and they are starting another mentoring group for farm crews. They also produce the Guide to Local Food & Farm and organize winter farmers markets in Great Barrington and the Williamstown/North Adams corridor.
Photo: Maeve Dillon, Program Manager for Farm to Food Access programs loads storage vegetables into a volunteer’s vehicle for delivery to local food pantry.
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Thoughtful insights about
food system issues.
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How one Mass. farm is transforming waste into energy
Massachusetts throws away a million tons of trash every year. And since November, businesses that generate more than half a ton of food waste a week can no longer dispose of it in landfills or incinerators.
Barstow’s Longview Farm in Hadley is working to do something about that by helping businesses turn food waste into clean energy through an anaerobic digester. The digester, which was built in 2013 and is run by Vanguard Renewables, mixes food waste and manure together, and the microbes from the manure break down the food. Methane gas then rises to the top of that tank and goes through what the farm calls “biological scrubbers” that remove sulfur particles. The methane burns in an engine, and that energy turns a generator that makes electricity. Enough electricity to power 1,600 homes then goes to the power grid.
In addition, since it built its digester, the farm has enjoyed increased soil health, higher crop yields, and more food per acre for its animals, while also decreasing the farm’s chemical fertilizer use by about 90 percent, according to Denise Barstow Manz, a seventh-generation dairy farmer and head of education at Barstow’s Longview Farm.
To read the full article from The Boston Globe, click here.
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Job Posting Sites
Job Listserv
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Upcoming Food System Events
Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!
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The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative envisions a local food system where everyone has access to healthy food, to land to grow food, to good jobs, and to the systems where policy decisions are made. Read more about our vision and our work.
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