By SARAH ROBERTSON
Staff Writer
ORANGE — Members of the Greater Quabbin Food Alliance met at the Orange Innovation Center recently to talk about solutions to the problems facing farmers and food producers in the region.
Small farmers in western Massachusetts face issues of sustainability, staying financially solvent in the wintertime, increasing pressure of urban sprawl and development, and rising farm operating costs. At the same time the rural communities they serve face issues of hunger, limited access to public transportation and incarceration, making access to fresh local food all the more important.
“We know they want to do it, it’s just a matter of linking them up,” said Jamie Pottern, farm conservation program manager for Mount Grace, of all the different food system professionals working together to solve complex issues.
The day began with a brief networking breakfast followed by seven “lightning talks” by nonprofit leaders, organizers and other key players in the North Quabbin Food system working on new ways to bring healthy food to people.
Mary Rose, a senior fellow with The Legal Food Hub, described the ways her organization helps farmers with legal issues around real estate, entity formation, taxes, employment, and intellectual property rights. Through their network of 144 law firms in New England, the nonprofit has provided about 3,000 hours of free legal advice to farmers valued at $1.5 million in services.
Several presenters talked about ways we can use the food system to help formerly incarcerated individuals access food and meaningful employment opportunities. Revan Schendler, co-developer of the Compost Co-op explained how her organization was founded by ex-inmates at the Franklin County House of Corrections.
Because people who have been in prison have a harder time accessing government benefits for food an subsidized housing, on top of limited job prospects, the Compost Co-op helps them find a fair paying job and build a sense of community, vital steps for the transition back into society
Executive director of the Franklin County Community Development Corporation John Waite shared information about the Massachusetts Food Trust program, which provides loans up to $300,000 and grants up to $25,000 for food distributors looking to serve low-income communities.
“There’s a reason there’s not a lot of local food hubs in the area,” Waite said. “It’s not easy.”
Julie Rawson of Many Hands Organic Farm talked about using plants for carbon sequestration and the threat of glycosphates, which the town of Warwick has already banned. On Dec. 13, the Northeast Organic Farming Association will host two call-in meetings for anyone interested in learning more about keeping glycosphates out of our food, one at noon and a second at 7 p.m.
“At all costs we need to start growing plants in as many places as we can for as long as possible,” Rawson said.
The Worcester Regional Food Hub, a wholesale food distributor and kitchen incubator, started as a collaboration with the Worcester Chamber of Commerce. In addition to serving as an intermediary seller of wholesale goods, the hub provides a commercial kitchen for farmers looking turn their produce into other products for sale.
“A food hub can take on many forms depending on the community’s needs,” said Susannah Hinman, sales manager for the Worcester Regional Food Hub.
Finally, land use and natural resources planner for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments Evan Abramson talked about the decline in bee populations due to pesticide use and the important role these pollinators play our food system.
The Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust sponsors the Greater Quabbin Food Alliance, a network of farmers, community organizations, educators, and others with an interest in improving our food system and helping more people access fresh, locally produced food. The land trust aids this mission by working to identify and conserve farmland and vital food distribution centers, like the Quabbin Harvest co-operative food market in downtown Orange.
For five years now Mount Grace has hosted held two Food Alliance meetings a year in the winter and spring. Friday’s meeting was the third organized by the Food Alliance’s regional collaboration coordinator Katharina Kowalski, who identified and organized the stakeholders that would represent the Food Alliance. According to the regional collaboration coordinator for the North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership, this year was the largest and most diverse group to date with well over 60 participants.
After listening to the featured presenters meeting members discussed the issues with more specificity by breaking into four working groups focused on food access, supporting local farmers, distribution and market access, and ways to minimize food waste. From these meetings each group created a list of tasks that will further their goals.
“I want to see more focus on farm land development and open space in Athol, and not this route of development that we’ve been seeing,” Mary Holtorf, manager of the Athol Farmers Market, said at Friday’s meeting.
The food access group suggested writing letters to legislators in support of the Healthy Incentives Program, sharing resources with one another to rally more volunteers for the Orange Food Pantry, and issues of transportation and food deserts. Daniel Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm told the food waste and composting group how he and some friends from college started a soup kitchen in college that served hundreds with food they salvaged from dumpsters.
“That’s like my middle name, I dream of dumpster diving,” Botkin said. “It’s amazing how much waste there is.”
The distribution and marketing group, led by Pottern, got into the weeds discussing how smaller distributors could break into larger markets, and the profit barriers to selling produce to local schools.
“Somehow I think we need to make a case for spending more on good food,” said Cathy Stanton, chair of the Quabbin Harvest board of directors. “We tend to think by these terms, ‘farm-to-table’ but there’s so much in between.”
The importance municipal Agricultural Commissions, and the power their wield to protect farmers and farm land, topped the list of discussion topics by the group focused on supporting local agriculture. They agreed farmers need more support facing the uncertainties of a failed crop, illness, or low market prices for their goods. Even though for many farming is a passion fueled by a sense of community service, it is also a precarious livelihood.
“The farmers are not our saviors, and there’s this feeling they should be,” said M.L. Altobelli, chair of the Westminster Agricultural Commission. “They resent that.”
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@atholdailynews.com.