Tag Archives: families in poverty

Fashion

The compassionate Jim McGovern … always in style!

Congressman McGovern, House Democrats Call Out Speaker Ryan for Pushing Same Dangerous and Divisive Policies as Donald Trump
 
McGovern: Speaker Ryan’s Poverty Plan Looks Like It Was Pieced Together in Basement of Trump Tower, Does Nothing to Lift People out of Poverty

Congressman Jim McGovern, a senior member of the House Democratic Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity – joined today’s House Democratic press conference to call out Speaker Ryan for House Republicans’ dangerous poverty agenda unveiled this week and their failure to reject the hateful and divisive rhetoric and policies proposed by Donald Trump, their party’s presidential nominee.
 
Joining McGovern today were House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (CA-34), Vice Chairman Joe Crowley (NY-14), and House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Chair Steve Israel (NY-03).
 
Excerpts of Congressman McGovern’s Remarks:
 
“The Speaker of the House and House Republicans yesterday announced their so-called anti-poverty program and it is the same old, same old. It consists of retreads, oldies, but goodies from their conservative playbook.
 
“It looks like it was pieced together in the basement of Trump Tower because it does nothing to help lift people up and does everything to help put people down. And enough is enough.
 
“There’s no difference between what the House Republicans are proposing and what Donald Trump is proposing on the campaign trail. They don’t have a clue about what it’s like to be poor in this country. And Democrats are going to stand up and fight them. Democrats have solutions that could actually help get people out of poverty and put people back to work.
 
“The reality is that being poor in this country is hard work. A lot of the people who are struggling in poverty work for a living. They work full-time. Sometimes they work multiple jobs. The majority of people on SNAP who are able to work actually do work, but they earn so little that they still qualify for food stamps.
 
“Why aren’t we talking about raising the minimum wage to a livable wage? Why aren’t we talking about ways to make work pay so that people don’t have to be in poverty. But that’s not what’s in the Republican plan.
 
“It consists of more and more targeted cuts to programs that provide basic necessities like food. It is unconscionable what they have proposed and what they would do.
 
“The proposal that Speaker Ryan has released…basically amounts to nothing new. Nothing innovative. Certainly nothing bipartisan. And my hope is that none of the stuff he’s proposed will go anywhere.”
 
Full Transcript of Congressman McGovern’s Remarks:
 
“Nothing has frustrated me more in recent years than watching Republicans, day after day, beat up on poor people, belittle their struggle, diminish them, and present policies – quite frankly – that disrespect them.
 
“The Speaker of the House and House Republicans yesterday announced their so-called anti-poverty program and it is the same old, same old. It consists of retreads, oldies, but goodies from their conservative playbook.
 
“It looks like it was pieced together in the basement of Trump Tower because it does nothing to help lift people up and does everything to help put people down. And enough is enough.
 
“I think what bothers me even more is that the Republican narrative about poverty doesn’t reflect the reality. They would have you believe that poor people are poor because they want to be poor. They would have you believe that people living on SNAP are living the high life. That it’s the easy way to get by.
 
“The reality is that being poor in this country is hard work. A lot of the people who are struggling in poverty work for a living. They work full-time. Sometimes they work multiple jobs. The majority of people on SNAP who are able to work actually do work, but they earn so little that they still qualify for food stamps.
 
“Why aren’t we talking about raising the minimum wage to a livable wage? Why aren’t we talking about ways to make work pay so that people don’t have to be in poverty. But that’s not what’s in the Republican plan.
 
“It consists of more and more targeted cuts to programs that provide basic necessities like food. It is unconscionable what they have proposed and what they would do.
 
“Look, I think there’s no difference between what the House Republicans are proposing and what Donald Trump is proposing on the campaign trail. They don’t have a clue about what it’s like to be poor in this country. And Democrats are going to stand up and fight them. Democrats have solutions that could actually help get people out of poverty and put people back to work. Create good jobs that pay decent wages.
 
“So I hope it is clear to everyone, even those who have a quick glance at the proposal that Speaker Ryan has released that it basically amounts to nothing new. Nothing innovative. Certainly nothing bipartisan. And my hope is that none of the stuff he’s proposed will go anywhere.
 
“And finally, I’ll just say, to keep on doing this, to keep on scapegoating poor people, to keep on beating up on poor people is just a lousy thing to do.”
 

InCity Voices

Congressman McGovern Statement on Republicans’ Wrong Way Poverty Agenda

Congressman Jim McGovern, a senior member of the House Democrats Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity and the Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Nutrition Subcommittee, released the following statement after House Republicans unveiled the poverty portion of their so-called “A Better Way” agenda:

“Americans need Congress to come together to offer bipartisan solutions that will help millions of families escape poverty – not make it harder for them to get ahead. Speaker Ryan likes to talk about fixing poverty, but the House Republican agenda outlined today would only make poverty worse.

“We live in the richest, most powerful country in the world and yet 46 million of our fellow citizens are in poverty – including more than 15 million children. Today’s House Republican poverty agenda claims to offer bold new ideas, but the harsh reality is it’s just more of the same failed policies that hurt America’s most vulnerable families.

“When Speaker Ryan announced his Republican taskforce to tackle poverty, it was pretty hard to take him seriously because every single Republican on the taskforce voted to cut SNAP by $40 billion. In Speaker Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, 1 in 5 children struggle with hunger and 302,000 low-income children rely on free or reduced-price school lunches. Yet Speaker Ryan and House Republicans have repeatedly voted to slash the vital programs that help families in Wisconsin and across the country put food on the table. With today’s agenda, Speaker Ryan and House Republicans are just peddling more of the same empty rhetoric and offering no solutions to tackle hunger and actually help families in poverty.”

“In fact, House Republicans have repeatedly pushed dangerous cuts that hurt millions of Americans in poverty. Year after year, Republicans have consistently worked to gut funding for Head Start, Medicaid, and a wide range of initiatives dedicated to reducing poverty. In the most recent Republican budget proposal alone, House Republicans proposed a shameful $3.7 trillion in cuts to essential anti-poverty programs.

“Speaker Ryan’s latest attack on American families working to escape poverty isn’t a better way, it’s the wrong way. As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from Donald Trump, today’s agenda offering no solutions to actually help families escape poverty makes it clear that they’re cut from the same cloth. Slapping a fresh coat of paint on a failed set of policies doesn’t change the fact that this agenda will only make poverty worse. Americans deserve better and House Democrats will not back down from this fight.”

InCity Yum Yums

Congressman McGovern Praises Massachusetts Efforts to Tackle Food Waste, Calls for More Action at Every Level  

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Soup’s on! pic:R.T.

America Spends $218 Billion Every Year on Food That Is Never Eaten
 
Reducing Food Waste Is Key to Helping 50 million Americans Struggling with Hunger

Today Congressman Jim McGovern spoke on the House Floor to raise awareness about food waste in the U.S. and to praise efforts in Massachusetts and across the country to reduce food waste and help the 50 million Americans – including 16 million children – who struggle with hunger every year.  
 
“American consumers, businesses, and farms spend an estimated $218 billion per year growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. Up to 40 percent of all food grown is never eaten,” Congressman McGovern said. “Forty to fifty million tons of food is sent to landfills each year, plus another 10 million tons is left unharvested on farms. This food waste translates into approximately 387 billion calories of food that went unconsumed.
 
“With 50 million Americans – including 16 million children –struggling with hunger every year, these are startling figures,” McGovern added. “We know food waste occurs throughout the supply chain – from harvesting to manufacturing to retail operations and consumer habits.  We must do more to reduce food waste at every stage, recover food that would have otherwise been wasted, and recycle unavoidable waste as animal feed, compost, or energy.
 
“Thankfully, there’s already a lot of great work being done to raise awareness about the problem of food waste,” McGovern concluded. “I’m pleased to see so many partners at every level of the food supply chain taking action to reduce food waste, but still, more needs to be done. Let’s solve the problem of food waste and let’s end hunger now.” 
 
In today’s speech today, Congressman McGovern recognized Massachusetts leaders and organizations like the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts for helping to reduce food waste as part of the larger push to tackle hunger. McGovern also thanked Becker College, College of the Holy Cross, Smith College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute for their work with the Campus Kitchen Project and the Food Recovery Network to provide hunger relief in their local communities through campus food recovery initiatives.
  
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Full Text of Congressman McGovern’s Speech:
 
“Thousands of people will gather in Washington, D.C. this week for “Feeding the 5000” – an event designed to bring awareness to the issue of food waste. 
 
“Participants will be served a communal meal made entirely out of food that would otherwise have been discarded – in other words, wasted. 
 
“Since 2009, Feedback, a global environmental organization working to end food waste, has hosted dozens of “Feeding the 5000” events in cities across the globe. 
 
“I’m pleased to see so many local partners – including government agencies, charitable organizations, NGOs, industry, and chefs – joining together to call attention to food waste. 
 
“Because the truth of the matter is, we’ll need all of these partners working together to solve the issue of food waste.
 
“Last year, the USDA announced their first-ever food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030. USDA is working with charitable organizations, faith-based groups, and the private sector and I believe this goal is 100 percent achievable.
 
“American consumers, businesses, and farms spend an estimated $218 billion per year growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. 
 
“Up to 40 percent of all food grown is never eaten.  Forty to fifty million tons of food is sent to landfills each year, plus another 10 million tons is left unharvested on farms. 
 
“This food waste translates into approximately 387 billion calories of food that went unconsumed.
 
“With 50 million Americans – including 16 million children –struggling with hunger every year, these are startling figures. 
 
“We know food waste occurs throughout the supply chain – from harvesting to manufacturing to retail operations and consumer habits.  We must do more to reduce food waste at every stage, recover food that would have otherwise been wasted, and recycle unavoidable waste as animal feed, compost, or energy.
 
“Thankfully, there’s already a lot of great work being done to raise awareness about the problem of food waste. 
 
“Just last week I attended a screening of the documentary film, Just Eat It at Amherst Cinema, organized by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. Just Eat It follows a couple, Jen and Grant, as they stop going to the grocery store and live solely off of foods that would have been thrown away. Jen and Grant were able to find an abundance of perfectly safe and healthy food available for consumption that would have been thrown away.
 
“It’s exciting to see new partnerships forming to study food waste and find ways to use this perfectly good food to reduce hunger in our communities. 
 
“One such private-public collaboration, ReFED, has brought together over 30 business, government, and NGO leaders committed to wide-scale solutions to U.S. food waste. 
 
“In March, 2016, ReFED released a Roadmap that charts the course for a 20 percent reduction of food waste within a decade. 
 
“The Roadmap calls for farmers to reduce unharvested food and create secondary markets for imperfect produce.  It calls on manufacturers to reduce inefficiencies, make packaging adjustments, and standardize date labeling.  It calls on food service companies to further implement waste tracking and incorporate imperfect produce and smaller plates into restaurants.  And it urges the federal government to strengthen tax incentives for food donation and consider standardized date labeling legislation.   
 
“The good news is that many in the industry are already taking steps to dramatically cut down on wasted food by implementing robust donation programs. 
 
“For example, Starbucks recently announced it will soon scale up its successful food donation pilot program nationwide. In partnership with the Food Donation Connection and Feeding America, Starbucks will donate unsold food from more than 7,000 company-operated stores –salads, sandwiches, and other refrigerated items – to the Feeding America food bank network. By 2021, that amounts to almost 50 million meals.
 
“Our college campuses are also stepping up. Both the Campus Kitchen Project and the Food Recovery Network work with college dining facilities and students to provide hunger relief in their local communities. In my congressional district, Becker College, College of the Holy Cross, Smith College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute all have campus food recovery initiatives.
 
“Over the past 35 years, Feeding America has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to ensuring food that would have otherwise been wasted makes its way to food banks across the country and into the homes of families in need. 
 
“There are dozens of other industry leaders also taking steps to reduce food waste by implementing manufacturing upgrades, maximizing harvests, and utilizing recycling initiatives.  
 
“I appreciate the efforts of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance in bringing together industry partners to reduce food waste, shrink the environmental footprint, and alleviate hunger in our communities. 
 
“Reducing food waste is one step we can take toward our goal of ending hunger in the United States and throughout the world. 
 
“I’m pleased to see so many partners at every level of the food supply chain taking action to reduce food waste, but still, more needs to be done. Let’s solve the problem of food waste and let’s end hunger now.”
 

InCity Voices

Ron Charette and the South Worcester Neighborhood Center

By Ron O’Clair

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting recently with one of Worcester’s unsung heroes – Mr. Ronald “Ron” Charette, executive director of the South Worcester Neighborhood Center at 47 Camp St., here in Worcester.

While I was there the “Ronald McDonald House”/UMass mobile community healthcare support vehicle was there.

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Ron outside the neighborhood center – standing before the Ronald McDonald House/UMass community healthcare vehicle – a doctor’s office on wheels!

I want our readers to know just what kind of concerned and caring individual Ron Charette is and the many ways he helps the less fortunate in our community. As you may or may not know, Ron administers a food pantry out of the neighborhood center, and I went through the process while there to receive a Price Rite Super Market heavy-duty white plastic bag filled to the top with a variety of foodstuffs, along with milk and cheese. Ron is trying to make a difference in the lives of those members of the South Worcester neighborhood who might otherwise have nothing of nutritional value to eat.

I saw many people come to the food pantry, including a mother and her two teenage children who hailed from Thailand. Her son is enrolled as a senior at South High School and acted as interpreter during the time we were speaking.
  
There were a few others that came to the food pantry, including a gentleman, his wife and daughter. They were displaced from their home at 27 Sigel St., which burned on a brutally cold night this past winter. There were three house fires that night, and I am sure that if the displaced families are reading this, Ron will allow you to access the food bank, as well as any stored supplies they may have, including clothing and personal hygiene supplies.
  
Ron makes sure to do whatever he can to help families in need, and he does not limit his clients to the one time a month rule that many pantries enforce. He believes if people are in need, they are hungry, he is going to help them make it through another month if he has any say about it.

Ron Charette has a new plan of action to address what he sees as a crisis affecting the children of the area: the dangerous habit they have of gaining access to the railroad tracks in the area, which has led to calamity after calamity since I was a boy growing up in that area. When I was a kid we were constantly reminded of the dangers by the example of Charlie Pardee who lost a leg due to having been struck by a train when I was still in grade school. We would see him hobbling on crutches until he got his artificial leg years later.
  
There have been many incidents lately, including a person who thought he would race the train on a motorbike and lost the race – and his life this past January. Ron wants to take the message of railroad track safety to our schools with a presentation that will include a safety talk, along with a video disk showing the dangers up close and personal to prevent more children from having to go through life as Charlie Pardee had to. It generally is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. All of us who grew up near the tracks would at one time or another venture onto the railroad property and even create mischief, like breaking into the box cars to steal beer – a favorite pastime of the Princeton and Lewis Street gang back in my day living there, as well as perhaps to spray paint graffiti on the sides of the box cars. Kids do the darnedest things, and I was no exception.
  
Then there is the danger of simply falling off the wall at the end of Lewis, Princeton and Grand streets, like I did when I was just a preschool toddler and my family lived at 30 Lewis St. One of the Wolfe family, who lived on Lewis Street, saved me from being run over by the train by pulling me out of the way of the oncoming train at the last second. I want to say his name was Billy Wolfe, but time has blurred the memory. I do know he was an older brother of the John Wolfe that I went to school with years later as I grew up there at 28 Princeton St., after my parents divorced.

Railroad safety is no laughing matter, and Ron Charette has plans to raise the awareness of the issue by bringing a presentation with graphic video before as many groups of young people as he can to prevent tragedies. He attended the Main South Alliance for Public Safety Crime Watch meeting held on the third Wednesdays of the month a few months ago, along with myself, councilors Konnie Lukes and Moe Bergman, along with the usual mix of representatives from the various agencies in the City of Worcester, like Sgt. Maddox and Officer Salmon of the Worcester Police Department, and a representative of the railroad to discuss what is new in railroad safety.

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Rear entrance to the neighborhood center, which looks out on Maloney Field.
  
Ron also provides some daycare for the South Worcester Neighborhood Center clients so that working mothers know their children are in good hands while they work or attend classes. There are so many things that Ron is responsible for bringing to the South Worcester neighborhood. You should check out the Center and volunteer or donate gently used clothing or housewares to help Ron make the lives of the area residents better. I believe there should be more of a focus on helping people help themselves as a community united, instead of a community divided.

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The South Worcester Neighborhood Center was originally built through the Works Progress Administration, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression in the 1930s to put the unemployed to work. The building underwent a major renovation and expansion to become the South Worcester Neighborhood Center. 

Come on down to the South Worcester Neighborhood Center for a tour and see what you can do as an individual to make your own community a better place in which to live!

Questions or feedback? Email ronaldoclair@hotmail.com

InCity Voices

Hooray!!! Kudos to all involved!!!! … Supporting local farmers! Supporting the working class and poor! FRESH PRODUCE AND MORE VIA WORCESTER’S NEW FOOD HUB!!!

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) and the Regional Environmental Council of Central MA (REC) are pleased to announce continued funding for their food hub partnership.
 
In 2015, the Chamber and the REC embarked on a yearlong assessment to determine the feasibility of establishing a food hub in the Worcester region.

Food hubs are broadly defined as facilities that manage the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, or marketing of locally and regionally produced food. A food hub provides better consumer access to fresh, locally grown food and a larger consumer market for the region’s farmers.
 
At the conclusion of the study, an application was submitted to The Health Foundation for funding of a pilot year. A slate of programs falling into three categories have been identified for the pilot grant year.

These initiatives will:

support healthy local food access

job creation

economic development

While the food hub currently has no official headquarters, much of the pilot year activities will be operated out of the Worcester County Food Bank in, Shrewsbury.
 
“Food is fundamental to our lives. We all eat, and we all want to eat fresh healthy food. So, ease of access to affordable healthy food is critically important to us, regardless of our station in life. Yet, it is estimated that 90 percent of the food we eat in New England comes from somewhere else,” stated Dr. Jan Yost, president of The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. “Thus, the Foundation is pleased to announce a grant of $423,235 to the Regional Environmental Council of Central Massachusetts to partner with the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce to pilot a regional food hub.”

Yost went on to explain that, “Today 80 percent of the land in New England is covered with forest, much of which used to be farmland. Researchers suggest that by 2060, New England could expand its farmland to 6 million acres, or 15 percent of the entire land mass, which would enable New England to grow half of its own food.”
 
“The Worcester County Food Bank is the region’s largest anti-hunger organization, annually distributing nearly 6 million pounds of donated fresh and non-perishable food to a network of 131 Partner Agencies that help feed hungry people”, said Jean McMurray, Worcester County Food Bank’s Executive Director. 

She continued: “We are proud to host the Food Hub’s pilot year because we believe that healthy food grown and processed by community members benefits the entire community, including those struggling with poverty and hunger.”
 
Responsibility for pilot year activities will be split among the partner organizations, with the REC leading efforts to create opportunities for healthy eating via marketing, aggregation, and distribution of local farm products to institutional food service providers at area schools, colleges, and hospitals.

An initial group of eight to ten small to mid-sized family farms will be involved in these activities during the pilot year and four to five institutional buyers will be purchasing local farm products via the food hub.

The food hub will also be working to enhance healthy, local food offerings through the REC’s existing Mobile Farmers Market and through the City of Worcester Division of Public Health’s Mass In Motion Healthy Corner Store initiative.
 
”The REC has been working with organizational partners and grassroots community members for decades to help make healthy, local food universally accessible in the Greater Worcester area,” said Steve Fischer, REC Executive Director. “We are thrilled at the prospect that a regional food hub could help create a regional food system that is increasingly based on principles of economic and social justice and environmental sustainability. Working together, we have an opportunity to make healthy food more accessible while supporting local farmers, growing the economy, creating jobs, and preserving the environment.”
 
The Chamber will oversee food hub activities operated through a Commercial Kitchen Incubator to be located at the Worcester County Food Bank. During the pilot year, the Chamber will spearhead the recruitment of potential tenants including farmers, budding food entrepreneurs, small culinary businesses looking to take the next step in their development, and even home cooks looking to scale up a long-held family recipe.
 
“Given the success of last year’s planning grant process, we are excited to move forward with this pilot year that will set the stage for long-term success,” stated Chamber president and CEO Timothy P. Murray. “Our efforts with the commercial kitchen fit into our working motto of recruit, retain and incubate. Incubating the next generation of food entrepreneurs will help them turn their passion into a career, add to the region’s growing food economy, and result in a healthier population in Worcester and Central Massachusetts.”
 
The final piece of the pilot year project is a culinary training program that will be overseen by Quinsigamond Community College (QCC).

QCC expects to train at least 2 cohorts of 8-10 students and to provide job placement at area restaurants, caterers and institutional food service providers.

This new certificate program will target students who are members of vulnerable populations in Worcester County and who have previously experienced barriers to employment.
 
Dale Allen, QCC’s vice president for community engagement stated “Quinsigamond Community College is excited about being selected as a key partner in this grant. We are committed to supporting program activities that will increase access to healthy, fresh foods for underserved neighborhoods in our city. This program will be modeled after QCC’s successful ‘Cooking Up a Culinary Career’ program which has been offered for the past several years through the Worcester Youth Center and Hector Reyes House. We look forward to working with the Regional Environmental Council and Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce to expand access to healthy food and economic self-sufficiency for vulnerable populations in Worcester County.”
 
All of the pilot activities will be carefully evaluated and measured by an evaluation team from John Snow Inc., a health consultant company. Working closely with the grant management team throughout the pilot year JSI will continually evaluate the activities to provide real time feedback. The success of the outcomes of the various aspects of the piloted activities will be key to determining how the food hub operates after the pilot year.
 
The Food Hub project will hire a full-time operations manager to oversee the day-to-day aspects of the project during the pilot year.

Other partners collaborating on the project include Central Mass Grown, World Farmers/Flats Mentor Farm, Worcester Public Schools, Pepper’s Fine Catering, UMass Amherst Stockbridge School of Agricultural Extension, Worcester Division of Public Health and the Community Harvest Project.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Mass Farm to School!!!!

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Celebrate the Local Harvest!

Massachusetts Farm to School Receives USDA Grant to Host Statewide Farm to School Conference

Massachusetts Farm to School is pleased to announce that they have received support through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm to School Program, a national effort to strengthen the connection between school cafeterias and students with local farmers and ranchers. Massachusetts’ non-profit organization Mass Farm to School received a $25,000 training grant to impact cafeterias, classrooms and communities across the Commonwealth.

“Farm to school programs work—for schools, for producers, and for communities,” said USDA Secretary Vilsack. “By serving nutritious and locally grown foods, engaging students in hands-on lessons, and involving parents and community members, these programs provide children with a holistic experience that sets them up for a lifetime of healthy eating.”

“Every student deserves access to healthy food and the farm to school program helps families, farmers, and our local economy,” Congressman Jim McGovern said. “Connecting our local farmers and local schools ensures that each student gets the fresh fruits and vegetables they need to stay healthy and succeed as they continue to learn and grow. I am grateful to Secretary Vilsack for investing in our farmers and students and to all of our partners in Amherst and throughout Massachusetts who are helping to make this program a success.”

Mass. Farm to School will use the funds to organize and host their fourth statewide Farm to Cafeteria Conference. This conference, last held in January of 2015, brings together over 400 farmers, school foodservice directors, educators, students, policy makers and community advocates for a full day of learning and networking.

Attendees will spend the day learning about local food procurement practices, school garden resources, agriculture education opportunities, and farm to school best practices from around the Commonwealth.

Farm to school programs are one of the many tools and resources USDA offers to help schools successfully serve healthier meals.

In the past three years since the bipartisan passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, kids have eaten healthier breakfasts, lunches and snacks at school.

Over 97 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards.

Massachusetts Farm to School was founded in 2004 as a grassroots initiative to increase access to healthy, locally-grown food in schools and other institutions across the state.

The organization facilitates sustainable purchasing relationships between local institutions, distributors and local farms, promotes local food and agriculture education for students.

Mass. Farm to School works to support a thriving Massachusetts food economy where institutions are a profitable and accessible market for farms and where buying, serving, and teaching students about local food is ingrained in the fabric of public schools, colleges and universities.

InCity Voices

Mark your calendars! STATEWIDE CONFERENCE ADDRESSING HUNGER IN MASSACHUSETTS  

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OCTOBER 30

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
 
About the Conference:
 
The Food for Good Conference was inspired by Congressman James McGovern’s  tireless advocacy on behalf of lower-income Americans who struggle to meet their families’ basic nutrition needs every day, and by the everyday debates and decisions, triumphs and frustrations that we face in the field as we  stretch resources and forge new partnerships to provide ample, healthy food for our communities.

The conference is the result of efforts by a steering committee of anti-hunger leaders and service providers across the state.
 
The one-day conference begins with an analysis of the problem of food insecurity in Massachusetts and the nation, and an overview of current state-wide initiatives already underway.

The morning information session sets the stage for the focus of the conference, Cultivating Sustainable Solutions to Hunger in Massachusetts.
 
The conference is designed around cultivating solutions because the steering committee felt strongly that the event should serve as a launching pad for immediate and direct action and problem-solving, both for individuals in their respective roles as service providers, policy shapers and community leaders, and collectively, as a strong and united state-wide network.
 
Each workshop is designed around a critical goal that has been identified by food security advocates and invites participants to learn about some strategies that have been effective, what barriers might exist, and determine together what the next steps would be to expand or replicate those models and overcome the barriers to achieving the workshop goal.
 
Another aim of the conference is to share effective and innovative programs from around the state and to encourage interregional dialogue and connections.

To that end, we have included a morning and afternoon session entitled “Promising Practices in the Fight Against Hunger,” which provides participants with the opportunity to interact and learn from a wide range of practitioners, organizers and service providers. Attendees will move through a series of short presentations followed by small group discussions at tables featuring ground-breaking programs and projects.
 
Our lunchtime keynote speaker is Dr. Deborah Frank who will highlight how critical food security is to child nutrition and health. And we close the day by sharing the priorities identified during the workshops, and leave energized by closing remarks from Congressman James McGovern.

“Ending hunger shouldn’t be a controversial thing. It shouldn’t be something that we ignore but, rather, a goal that we embrace. Unlike ending war, ending hunger is an achievable goal. It’s something we can do if we muster the political will to do so.”

Congressman James McGovern, June 2014
 

For more information, contact Holly Kosisky at 
hkosisky@communityaction.us or (413) 376-1179
 
www.communityaction.us