Partners on North Main: Celebrating 10 Years of Building a Better Food System
Eat local.
It’s a simple idea in theory: Purchase foods that are grown near your home. When we eat locally, we support local farmers, enjoy fresher, more nutritious products and reduce the environmental impact of transporting our food. Sounds pretty good, right?
The benefits of “eating local” are plain to see, but putting the idea into practice? That’s where things get blurry.
For many communities, “eating local” is just not realistic. The idea doesn’t work without viable, sustainable farms and markets where local farmers can sell their products. On top of that, if a community can’t afford to purchase locally grown products, the local food system ceases to function all together.
These are the challenges that Quabbin Harvest – a member-owned food cooperative – and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust came together to address in the North Quabbin region.
Joining forces to strengthen the North Quabbin Food System
In 2013, we began our “local farms and local food-building collaboration” with Quabbin Harvest, with the goal of working to solve the problem of regional food insecurity. At the time, the towns of Orange and Athol were both classified as “food deserts,” due to the limited local availability of nutritious food for sale.
Quabbin Harvest began as a buying club called the North Quabbin Community Co-operative in 2009, selling local produce out of a tiny volunteer-run store in one of Orange’s many old factory buildings. After 4 years of business, the local food co-op had not only demonstrated its commitment to serving local farmers and the community, but it also outgrew the small retail space it was operating in.
That’s when Mount Grace got involved.
Seeing the connection to our work to protect local farms, Mount Grace purchased a building in downtown Orange to house the co-op in 2014. The store, Quabbin Harvest, would revitalize a storefront in Orange’s downtown area, provide healthy food to the community and directly support local agriculture.
“Across the North Quabbin region, Mount Grace protects the working landscapes that sustain us all,” said Emma Ellsworth, Executive Director of Mount Grace. “We’ve helped over 40 local farms, but our farm conservation work wouldn’t be nearly as impactful if the farms we were protecting were not able to market the food they raise. Our partnership with Quabbin Harvest strengthens our local food system to help keep our region’s farmers on the land.”
By partnering with local farms – many of which Mount Grace has worked to protect – the new Quabbin Harvest storefront has expanded the market for selling locally grown food and bolsters farming viability in the Nort Quabbin region.
10 Years of Partnership
On Saturday, August 10, we celebrated our partnership with Quabbin Harvest at their storefront on North Main Street in Orange, MA. The event, which was hosted by Honest Weight Brewery, attracted over seventy attendees and featured food from Quabbin Harvest. The event also featured an impressive list of speakers, many of whom praised the innovative partnership and stressed the importance of addressing food insecurity in the North Quabbin region. The event was generously sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank, Dean’s Beans, Marty’s Local and the North Quabbin Chamber and Visitor Bureau. It featured live music, catered food and drink, raffle prizes and special guests State Rep. Susannah Whipps, and MA Director of Rural Affairs Anne Gobi.
We hope to continue working with Quabbin Harvest to not only help local farmers, but also to help provide for low-income families in our region. Quabbin Harvest’s community-oriented approach to food security has helped countless local families, as the co-op offers affordable food buying programs. The food cooperative accepts SNAP/EBT, sells staple items like rice and beans in bulk and offers produce share options for low-income eaters.
Mount Grace and Quabbin Harvest both recognize that the partnership we have will have to adapt to help local farmers confront new challenges. “In the coming years, we will have to find ways to help keep the farms in our region profitable and viable,” said Emma Ellsworth. At the event this past weekend, the question of how our partnership remains sustainable and in-operation loomed large. In the meantime, we will continue working to make “eat local” not just a lofty ideal, but a tangible reality.