Massachusetts Food System Collaborative
Massachusetts Food System Collaborative

Tag: Urban Ag

Urban Agriculture Coalition

The Collaborative is working with The Food Project to organize skill sharing among urban agriculture organizations.

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Urban growers seeking land to farm face high costs

Not all farms in Massachusetts are found in idyllic rural settings. Thousands of people, many of them immigrants and low-income, tend less-than-one-acre farms and gardens in Springfield, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Boston, and other cities. There is an increased demand for local food in cities but many roadblocks prevent communities from gaining access to the land […]

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Veggies go mobile with support from hospital

The UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester supports several efforts in distressed, food-insecure neighborhoods to improve nutrition among vulnerable residents and increase access to healthy food. In collaboration with the City of Worcester and the Regional Environmental Council (REC), the hospital supports the Grant Square Community Garden in Worcester’s Bell Hill neighborhood. Established in 2010, […]

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Urban food growing launches culturally-based school food operation

Nuestras Raices is a 23-year-old urban agriculture and economic justice organization founded by the Latino community in Holyoke. The organization supports a network of 13 community gardens and a 30-acre urban farm dedicated to cultivating, sharing and selling the treasured cultural crops beloved by Latino families. Youth development, microenterprise support, farm to school, and cultural […]

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Town-owned land leased to successful community farm

Town farms – or poor farms – provided a support system for society’s poor in the 1800s through the mid-1900s in New England. Often on the outskirts of town, the poor farm provided a sense of purpose for paupers who then provided labor for the farm. Just such a poor farm was owned by the […]

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Massachusetts Food System Collaborative