| Last updated on September 24, 2007 |
Our vision is to create personal and social change through sustainable agriculture.
Our mission is to create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who working together to build a sustainable food system. Our community produces healthy food for residents of the city and suburbs, provides youth leadership opportunities and inspires and supports others to create change in their own communities.
Description:
Since 1991, The Food Project has built a national model of engaging young people in personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. Each year, we work with over a hundred teens and thousands of volunteers to farm on 31 acres in rural Lincoln, MA and on several lots in urban Boston. We consider our hallmark to be our focus on identifying and transforming a new generation of leaders by placing teens in unusually responsible roles, with deeply meaningful work.
Each season, we grow nearly a quarter-million pounds of food without chemical pesticides, donating half to local shelters. We sell the remainder of our produce through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) crop "shares," farmers' markets, and Harvest Bags. We market our own Farm-Fresh Salsa and holiday pies, and even offer fine catering. Locally, we also partner with urban gardeners to help them remediate their lead-contaminated soil and grow healthier food.
Nearly half of The Food Project's work is as a resource center for organizations and individuals worldwide. We provide unique capacity building for organizations and educators who learn from The Food Project's expertise through materials, youth training and professional development opportunities. Even projects completely unrelated to farming can draw on our methods for building inspired, diverse and productive youth communities.
History:
"By growing food and working with others, we act on our desire to learn, to serve and to be productive." --Ward Cheney, Founder
Roots
Founded by Lincoln and Weston, MA resident Ward Cheney, The Food Project grew out of his recognition that young people and adults were not connected to the land or, often, to each other. Lincoln is an affluent suburb known for its innovative land preservation policies, where over a third of the community's 9000 acres are considered protected open space. And yet he observed that youth felt isolated from their surroundings because local opportunities for meaningful work were limited. He also discovered that city youth expressed similar frustrations.
And so, drawing on his experience as a farmer, organizer, educator, and activist, Ward founded The Food Project in 1991. His dream was both intimate and expansive. He created an opportunity for compelling, local work that focused on the land relationships. But he also envisioned The Food Project as a national model with the potential to transform urban and suburban young people and the communities in which they lived. Even though Ward left the program in 1993, his vision has allowed The Food Project to grow and thrive.
The Food Project launched its first growing season in 1992 with a budget of $100,000, three staff and eighteen youth working on 2.5 acres of land at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln. That summer, it grew and donated 4,000 pounds of food.
Growth
After its first three years as a self-funded pilot project of the Massachusetts Audubon Society at Drumlin Farm, The Food Project leased five, then eight, then 12, 21, and finally 31 acres of land from Lincoln's Conservation Commission.
In 1995, Food Project youth partnered with residents of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood to clear our Langdon Street Lot and prepare the land for its first growing season in 1996. This formerly vacant half-acre was home to abandoned cars, old appliances, construction debris, trash, and litter.
In 1997, youth and community members cleared a two-acre site several blocks from the first. Again, The Food Project joined with neighbors to make the land productive. After adding tons of compost and countless hours of clean-up, the West Cottage Street lot was born.
And in 2001-2002, The Food Project added a third piece of land on Roxbury's Albion Street. A neighborhood gardener lent the organization the use of her land, an undeveloped lot just blocks from the other two sites. Remediation became complete in 2001 and growing began in 2002.
Now in 2006, The Food Project has its own 31-acre farm in Lincoln plus three city food lots in Boston. It employs over 100 young people and 25 full-time staff and engages nearly 2,000 volunteers annually. It has offices both in Lincoln and in Boston. It grows nearly 250,000 pounds of chemical/pesticide-free food each season for charitable donation, subsidized sale at farmers' markets, and youth-driven food enterprises.
Contact person: Michael Iceland, Outreach Coordinator, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: (781) 259-9659
Address:
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PO Box 705/10 Lewis Street
Lincoln, MA 01773 |
Web Site: http://www.thefoodproject.org
Directions:
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