Sherborn Awarded Grant to Fund The Neighborhood Farm

BOSTON – Representative Linsky (D-Natick) announced today
that the Commonwealth awarded $3.3 million in grants to Sherborn and 33 other
towns to address urgent food insecurity for Massachusetts residents as a result
of the COVID-19 pandemic and make the Commonwealth’s food system more
resilient. This funding is being awarded as part of the second round of the new
$36 million Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program. The program was created
following recommendations from the Baker-Polito Administration’s COVID-19
Command Center’s Food Security Task Force, which promotes ongoing efforts to
ensure that individuals and families throughout the Commonwealth have access to
healthy, local food.

“Sherborn has always done excellent work providing fresh and local food to its residents.
This grant program will continue to ensure fresh and local foods amidst the
COVID-19 Pandemic” said Representative Linsky. “I want to thank the
Baker-Polito Administration for their continued dedication to the health and
well-being of Massachusetts residents.”

The Neighborhood Farm in Sherbon will receive $34,500 to purchase two refrigerated
trailers to store, hold, and transport produce. These are necessary to store
and distribute the increased production and prevent food from perishing due to
lack of refrigerated storage.

The goal of the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program is to ensure that
individuals and families throughout the Commonwealth have equitable access to
food, especially local food. The program also seeks to ensure that farmers,
fishermen and other local food producers are better connected to a strong,
resilient food system to help mitigate future food supply and distribution
disruption.

Applications will continue to be evaluated on a rolling basis through September 15, 2020. Eligible grantees include entities that are part of the Massachusetts local food system
including; production, processing and distribution, the emergency food
distribution network, Buy Local, community and food organizations, school meal
programming, urban farms and community gardens, non-profits, and organizations
that provide business planning, technical assistance and information technology
services. The Request for Responses for project proposals is available here.

The Food Insecurity Infrastructure Grant Program was announced in May 2020 as part
of a $56 million investment by the Baker-Polito Administration to combat urgent
food insecurity for some Massachusetts families and individuals as a result of
COVID-19. The Administration also announced a $5 million increase for the Healthy
Incentives Program to meet increased demand for local produce and to increase access points that
process SNAP and HIP benefits, $12 million for the provision of 25,000 family
food boxes per week through a regional food supply system, and $3 million in
funding as an immediate relief valve to food banks.

Last week, the Baker-Polito Administrationlaunched the MassGrown Exchange, an online platform designed to facilitate business-to-business connections within the local food
system for products and services. Developed by the Massachusetts Department of
Agricultural Resources (MDAR), in collaboration with the Division of Marine Fisheries
(DMF), this platform was established to both address COVID-19 disruptions to
the local food supply and to serve as a helpful tool and resource for
Massachusetts growers and producers in accessing markets beyond the duration of
the COVID-19 emergency.

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