Waltham Fields Community Farm, Healthy Waltham Awarded Grant

H2HC: Today the Hunger to Health Collaboratory (H2HC) announced a $7,500 Mobilizing Health Care for a Hunger Free Massachusetts grant awarded jointly to Community Farms Outreach Inc. and Healthy Waltham at the inaugural Hunger to Health Summit held at the Boston Museum of Science. H2HC is a cross sector collaboration of stakeholders committed to reducing the health consequences of hunger. In July 2019, H2HC announced this new grant program to advance partnerships between the health care industry and community-based organizations to address the health consequences of hunger in order to create a hunger-free Massachusetts.

Both Community Farms Outreach Inc. and Healthy Waltham are non-profit organizations that originally submitted separate applications for a $5,000 grant from H2HC this summer. The review committee encouraged them to work together and submit a joint proposal to serve the city of Waltham and their immediate neighbors. This collaboration resulted in a $7,500 grant awarded jointly to both Waltham-based organizations who will leverage their organizational relationships to facilitate dialogue on strategies to address the over 8% food insecurity rate in the community.

This convening will urge constituents to learn more about existing barriers to food access, coordinate referral efforts across organizations and discuss initiatives and assess interest in building a greater connection to current clinical care partners. They will look at the viability of a “produce prescription program” connecting the medical/health care community more directly to local healthy food produced by Waltham Fields.

"Waltham Fields Community Farm is grateful to The Greater Boston Food Bank for this tremendous support and the opportunity to collaborate in a greater capacity with Healthy Waltham,” said Stacey Daley, executive director of Waltham Field Community Farm. “Our organizations have worked alongside each other to increase food-access and strengthen food security for our neighbors in need of greater nourishment. We look forward to the convening of our community partners in an effort to reduce barriers to healthy food access, increase awareness and availability of resources, and envision a community in which sustainable agriculture plays a central role in creating universal access to the food of local farms.”

"Healthy Waltham is thrilled to collaborate with Waltham Fields Community Farm to advance our healthy food access work in the community," said Maria DiMaggio, Healthy Waltham Communications Director. "We are very grateful for the support of this grant that will allow us to convene food access partners to address hunger issues together. Underserved members of the Waltham community will benefit tremendously through this work."

Stop & Shop’s generous support has enabled a total of $32,500 to be awarded as six different Mobilizing Health Care for a Hunger Free Massachusetts grants to health care and community-based organizations throughout the state. For a complete list of grant recipients visit https://www.gbfb.org/news/press-releases/hunger-to-health-grant-recipients/.