Food Insecurity Program
According to the Worcester County Food Bank 1 in 12 people and 1 in 9 children in Worcester County are food insecure. The Agro-Eco Project is committed to providing fresh fruit and vegetables grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers to food pantries in our area. We believe that food is medicine and strive to provide the healthiest produce to some of the more vulnerable members of our community. We primarily serve the following food pantries: Saint John's Food for the Poor Program in Worcester, the Rutland Food Pantry and the Charlton Food Pantry. We have three programs in place to tackle hunger in our community.
Food donations from our farm: 100% of the food we grow at our farm is redistributed to the food pantries we work with. We are averaging between 2000 and 3000 pounds of produce yearly, depending on our crop mix. These are are usually a mix of favorites such as tomatoes, cucumbers and corn, along with healthy greens such as kale, collards and chard. Depending on the year, we might supplement with microgreens and other greens grown hydroponically. As our fruit trees and berry bushes come into production we have been incrementally adding pears, peaches, raspberries and blackberries to our donations.
Greater Table Initiative: during the months between November and June, while our farm is not growing produce, our Greater Table Initiative kicks in by purchasing food locally and redistributing it to the food pantries we work with. We purchase food through the Worcester Regional Food Hub, a local food aggregator, with the aim of spending food dollars locally thereby supporting local farms.
Local Chef Program: every year we team up with small food businesses and local chefs to create ready to eat meals for the food pantries we serve. In the past years we have purchased around 600 meals yearly, as well as dozens of holiday pies over the holiday season. The local chefs we hire use primarily local ingredients either purchased from local farms or using produce from our farm when in season.
