"Farm to Brewery" Fundraiser Event to support Growing Places

Join us for an important fundraiser to support Growing Places (GP), a leader in creating an equitable and accessible local food system in North Central MA!

GP's innovative programs are holistically transforming the local food landscape to address the alarming rates of food insecurity and nutrition related diseases in our region by leveraging the power of our food and farm system. These programs include:

• Growing Healthy Food: Through Farm to School programming and partnerships with nonprofits, GP supports school-based and community gardens, as well as outdoor raised bed gardens for underserved households.
• Equitable Distribution: GP aggregates locally grown produce from small and mid-sized farms in MA/NCMA, distributing it to over 600 underserved households weekly. Our produce reaches the community through farmers and mobile markets that accept SNAP and the MA Healthy Incentive Program (HIP), which doubles SNAP dollars for local produce based on household size. We also offer a SNAP/HIP eligible home-delivered produce program and the FARMacy Rx program, which assists food-insecure patients with SNAP applications and connects them to GP's distribution channels.
• Nutrition Benefit Support: We offer SNAP application assistance and HIP awareness to maximize the benefits available to residents.
• Youth and Resident Engagement: We empower youth and residents to become leaders in the food system, fostering a sense of ownership and pride.
• Reducing Food Waste: Our efforts in composting, dehydration, and processing turn excess produce into value-added food products.

In addition to these direct service programs, GP drives systemic change as the backbone organization for Local Food Works (LFW), a coalition of 150+ partners dedicated to building NCMA's health and wealth through the local food system. As LFW's mid-tier partner, GP focuses on aggregation, processing, and distribution. We're excited to announce the launch of our local food processing center, which will provide lightly processed produce, such as chopped butternut squash and coined carrots, to meet consumer and institutional needs. This facility is currently in its soft launch phase and is expected to be fully operational by August 2024.

GP's impact is clear: Last year, we aggregated and distributed 146,000 units of local produce to 16,131 households in NCMA. We sourced from 38 MA farmers, with 33 based in NCMA. This infused $500,000+ into our local economy to support our farming community. Help us double that number this year!

Join us at our fundraiser and support Growing Places as we continue to build a resilient, equitable local food system. Get your tickets now and be a part of the change!