Photo From Franklin County Now
(Boston, MA) To combat hunger and food insecurity in the state, the Healey-Driscoll Administration through the Mass Department of Agricultural Resources is awarding local food organizations $8.2 million in funding. Just Roots in Greenfield will receive over $15,000 to make improvements to their membership and professional educational development programs. Another Greenfield based organization, the Collaborative for Educational Services was awarded $20,000 to support their work in transforming the food system to become more local, sustainable, and affordable.
From Mass.Gov:
Just Roots – Greenfield, MA: $15,267
The Franklin County Food Council will create a venue for information sharing, expand the types of entities and stakeholders engaged in membership, and increase the capacity of both the Council and the Steering Committee. Professional educational development will support decision-making structures. Frameworks for updating information will be explored to help decisions that benefit all stakeholders in this unique, rural, and agriculturally significant area.
Collaborative for Educational Services – Greenfield, $20,000
The Collaborative for Educational Services will support resident training for food system leadership roles, develop an alternative payment and staffing model to support leadership roles, and fund an annual retreat to set food policy priorities and build connections and relationships across partners. These efforts will build the capacity of those most impacted by food insecurity in the food system to actively and effectively engage in collective action to transform the food system to be more localized, sustainable, affordable, and culturally responsive.