Continuing its ongoing efforts to support a resilient, secure local food supply chain in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth announced today $5.9 million in grants to address urgent food insecurity for residents across Massachusetts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including nearly $300,000 in grants to Cape Ann businesses and nonprofits. This funding is being awarded as part…
I am pleased to announce that today the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), in collaboration with the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), has launched the MassGrown Exchange online platform to link food system channels and help facilitate business-to-business connections within the local food system for products and services. When COVID-19 hit in earnest in March of…
Applications for the Commonwealth’s Food Security Infrastructure Grants are now being accepted on a rolling basis through September 15, 2020. The goal of the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program is to ensure that individuals and families throughout the Commonwealth have access to food, with a special focus on food that is produced locally and provides equitable access to…
Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation to fund a $36 million COVID-19 Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program. Fisheries, farms, and other local food system businesses will be eligible for grants under the program to help them adapt to disruptions and to allow them to provide greater access to local food. Over the past several…
Last week, I sent a letter requesting that the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Export Development hold a hearing on Cape Ann to determine the effects of the Trump Administration trade war with China on the Massachusetts lobster industry. I am concerned that two prominent Cape Ann seafood businesses, National Fish & Seafood and Pigeon Cove Whole Foods have recently shuttered…
In Boston, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester pushed for a hearing in Gloucester by a joint committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on the Trump administration’s trade policies with China “and its effects on the Massachusetts lobster industry and corresponding ports.” In a letter to the leadership of the Joint Committee on Export Development, Ferrante…
Amy Donnelly, the school’s science coordinator and eighth-grade teacher, and David Brown, O’Maley’s engineering specialist, spearheaded the lab’s creation. Funding was secured in 2017 with a $56,998 grant from the Massachusetts Life Science Center. Read more on the Gloucester Daily Times website→
When state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante presented House citations saluting Courtland Kelly, Meghan Stratton and Marina Lavender, the three AmeriCorps workers serving Gloucester’s Backyard Growers, she noted the work of the city’s growing and farming community. Read more on the Gloucester Daily Times website→
More than 200 Plum Cove Elementary School pupils recently harvested more than 70 pounds of produce. During this year’s Fall Harvest Day, kindergartners through fifth-graders picked potatoes, beets, carrots, squash, pumpkins, and beans they planted in their school garden last June with Backyard Growers. Read more on the Gloucester Daily Times website→
