Happenings is published three times a year to inform our readers about activities and events in our community. The newsletter design, graphics, and editorial are contributed by Heather Hammel. Additional editorial contributed by

Alice Poltorick. We’d love to hear from you. Please contact us with your comments at outreach@thefoodproject.org and stay connected on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

WE ARE EXCITED to announce that James “J.” Harrison was named Executive Director on January 29, following a national search conduct-ed by The Food Project’s Board of Trustees.

J. has served as Acting Director of The Food Project since October and has worked with the organization for over 10 years.

“What is so extraordinary about The Food Project is that the work we do locally on our farms, at com-munity meetings, at our farmers markets, and at hunger relief or-ganizations, is so personal and hu-man-scale. Yet, at the same time, the models and programs we develop

and share help shape youth leader-ship and food systems work across the country. The Food Project is a place of growth, transformation, and hope, and it is an honor to be cho-sen to serve as Executive Director,” J. said.

“We are very excited that J. will lead the organization into the fu-ture,” said Dylan Sanders, Chair of The Food Project’s Board of Trustees. “In addition to a deep history with the organization—and the stabil-ity that comes with it—he brings an exciting vision for how The Food Project will continue transforming youth and our neighborhoods in new and more effective ways.

Moreover, J.’s leadership style models the core values of The Food Project. He brings a passion for breaking down barriers and making connections across communities—actions which are so important to transforming our food system.”

W i n t e r 2 0 1 5

Youth. Food. Community.

What’s happening?

thefoodproject.org

The Food Project’s mission is to create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable

food system. Our community produces healthy food for residents of the city and suburbs, provides youth leadership opportunities, and inspires and supports others

to create change in their own communities.

555 Dudley StreetDorchester, MA 02125

617-442-1322

120 Munroe StreetLynn, MA 01901

781-346-6726

10 Lewis StreetLincoln, MA 01773

781-259-8621

10 Lewis Street, Lincoln, MA 01773

Announcing Executive Director J. Harrison

Your support makes our work possible. Please make a donation today!

Return the enclosed envelope or donate online at thefoodproject.org/give

Growing Together:Youth programs on the North Shore come together

to learn, grow, and build healthier communities.

THE GROWING Together Program —a partnership between the Food Project and the Lynn Food and Fitness Alliance—is a yearlong em-powerment and food systems train-ing for youth orga-nizations in Lynn and surrounding communities. The three-part series is designed to prepare youth for leadership roles in policy, en-vironment, and sys-tems change.

“The Growing Together program engages our Root Crew youth in a capstone experience where they are leaders instead of participants. The program was creat-ed out of a desire to see more trained youth take leadership roles in the community,” said Chloe Zelkha, The Food Project’s Root Crew Supervisor

on the North Shore. “There has been a lot of interest in seeing youth orga-nizations collaborate to create great-er change in Lynn and the surround-ing areas. This new program is a

chance for our youth to lead their peers in a transformative ex-perience.”

One of the most powerful pieces of the curriculum has been a community build activity, where participants are di-vided into groups, given different re-sources, and asked to build a healthy com-munity. “It was great

to see how people could connect on how issues of race and class impact our food system after only two days with each other,” said John Wang, The Food Project’s Youth Programs and Community Outreach Manager

on the North Shore. He recalls a youth saying: “I nev-

er thought of the food system as be-ing impacted by racism. But think-ing about it, there are five or six fast food restaurants by my school. There’s also a vacant lot where we want to start a garden—but it looks like it will end up being another fast food restaurant.”

For the Food Project youth lead-ing the workshops, seeing transfor-mation in the youth participants has been very powerful. “At first, many youth are hesitant to participate,” re-marked Esmeralda D., 18, from Lynn, who is part of Root Crew. “After we gave the workshops, people become aware of what is happening in their communities. Raising awareness—that's what we’re looking for. People will say ‘I want to change this.’”

Learn more about the Growing Together Program on page 3

Learn more about Executive Director J. Harrison online!

What’s Inside:

2Page

3PageCooking with Maria

A food system vision

The produce route

Growing Together with Rosa

This new program is a chance for our youth to lead their peers in the community in a transformative experience.

“”- Chloe Zelka,

Root Crew Supervisor

Wednesday, May 6, 2015Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, Boston

Farmers, fables & feastsa benefit to support

The Food Project

Featuring Byron Hurt, 2015 Leadership Award Winner

For event details, sponsorship opportunities, and tickets, visit benefit.thefoodproject.org

Now selling CSA Shares!

Buy online atcsa.thefoodproject.orgor call 781-259-8621 x21

Lincoln Spring Greens Lincoln Summer Metro Boston SummerLynn SummerBeverly Summer

thefoodproject.org/ed

Youth make posters in a Growing Together workshop.

32 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5

Youth. Food. Community.

From Seed to Fork

“BACK HOME IN Cape Verde, we have a lot of vegetables. Everyday, you have a little zucca,” said Maria Barros, longtime resident of the Dudley neighborhood. “When I came to this neighborhood, in 1988, and this country in 1985, vegetables were very hard to find.”

For the past several years, Maria has been leading a cooking class on Cape Verdean cuisine out of The Food Project’s Dorchester kitchen, part of the Grow Well, Eat Well, Be Well workshop series.

The series brings together neigh-borhood residents around growing and cooking healthy food, and fo-cuses on engaging the Dudley com-munity in the creation of a local food system. We caught up with Maria

before her cooking class on February 24 to learn more about what inspires her in the kitchen.

“I love to see people eat health-ily,” Maria said. “For you to be healthy, it’s how you cook and pre-pare your food. When you cook with herbs and add more vegetables to your diet, it’s amazing. You really feel healthy.”

Maria loves to prepare canja chicken soup, rice and beans, and ca-chupa, a Cape Verdean stew packed with vegetables and legumes, which she leads a class in preparing on this snowy winter day. She moves around in the kitchen like she grew up there—which she did. “I grew up cooking with my grandmother,” she said. But she hasn’t stopped learning in the kitchen.

A couple of years ago, Maria’s doctor recommended cutting back on sodium. In the kitchen, she advis-es us that her cachupa is low on salt and allows us to add our own, while teaching about the ties between a diet low in sodium and good health.

And she’s pleased with the prog-ress she’s seen in Boston around the availability of fresh vegetables and interest in cooking with them. “Now, every newspaper has a healthy rec-ipe in it,” she said. And she’s still learning new ways to cook familiar vegetables. “Generation over gen-eration, there’s always new things,” she said. For instance, Maria grew up boiling her collard greens and

kale. Now, she also sautés her greens in olive oil, and makes kale chips!

As the class moves out of the kitchen and everyone fills their plates with cachupa over rice, chat-ter fills the air as people share their experiences cooking and what healthy and delicious food means to them.

Maria Barros: Leader, Teacher, and Cook

(Top left) Maria Barros, a Dudley neighborhood resident and home cook, demonstrates how to make cachupa (Above), a Cape Verdean stew of hominy (corn), beans, and vegetables, served with rice, at an Eat Well cooking class.

What does healthy home cooking mean to you? Share your answer on Facebook and Twitter with #tfphealth

T h e Fo o d P r o j e c t

IF YOU COULD ENVISION a healthy, sustainable food system for a neighborhood, what would it look like? The Dudley Real Food Hub, a collaboration between The Food Project, the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), and Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), is leading a community planning process to do just that in Boston’s Dudley neighborhood.

To get the process started, youth from The Food Project and DSNI conducted a survey to gather information on how the neighborhood food system works for local residents. The survey, which was highlighted in The Food Project’s fall newsletter, provided the basis for a series of discussions throughout the fall in which a steering committee of neighborhood residents identified a vision and a set of priorities around food in the neighborhood.

The committee’s vision, which was enthusiastically affirmed at a December community meeting, states: "The Dudley Real Food Hub

envisions a local resident-led food system that provides access to nutritious, affordable healthy food to all our neighbors, brings economic opportunities to residents, and protects the environment."

Working groups of neighborhood residents and business owners are now drawing on the input from that community meeting to draft action plans on priority areas, including: affordable, fresh produce; healthy food in schools; vacant land for growing; jobs and businesses; nutritious restaurants; and composting and recycling.

“This food planning process is the first of its kind in the city of Boston. It has the potential not only to build a ‘food oasis’ in Dudley but also to offer a set of tools for how other communities in Boston and across the country can increase community involvement and control of their neighborhood food systems,” said Sutton Kiplinger, The Food Project’s Regional Director for Greater Boston. “We are excited to be part of this process.”

The Dudley community’s vision for a food system

COMMUNITY UPDATE

DowntownBoston

Cambridge

Somerville

Arlington

Lexington

Wellesley

Jamaica Plain

BrooklineDorchester

Lynn

Lincoln

BeverlyWenham

*Map not to scale.

Farms

CSA Pick-up Sites

Farmers Markets

Hunger Relief Organizations

22,211pounds of produce

sold at farmers markets accepting EBT/SNAP benefits

565households with CSA farm shares

meals served at hunger relief organizations

with our produce

174,744

"WHEN WE CAME TOGETHER in the first session, we realized that we all love what we do and are grateful that the opportunity to do what we do came our way," said Rosa D., 17, from Lawrence, a participant in The Food Project's Growing Together Program.

Rosa is a member of Groundwork Lawrence's Green Team, one of the eight groups participating in this year’s Growing Together Program. For Rosa, the Growing Together Program has been an opportunity to meet youth from The Food Project who are also working to build

healthier communities and bond over shared experiences, as well as a place of learning.

One question they tackled togeth-er was "How do you build a commu-nity that is active and healthy?" The answers varied—what is good for the health of one community doesn't necessarily work in another. "We learned that different connections in a community impact the way we live," Rosa said. "We don't actually know until we are put into a com-munity, what it means to be active and healthy in that particular com-munity."

Rosa is passionate about chang-ing the lives of people in Lawrence for the better. When she turned 16, she jumped at the chance to get a job and found the Green Team, where she works to "promote awareness of the environment and stabilize the Lawrence community," she said.

For Rosa, participating in the Growing Together Program has been "really powerful." She credits The Food Project youth with hav-ing fresh ideas about healthy eating. "We take what we learn at The Food Project and bring it back to the com-munity of Lawrence."

Growing Together: Rosa, 17, takes what she learned with The Food Project back to her community in Lawrence

Trace the distribution routes our fresh produce takes from our farms in Greater Boston and the North Shore to your plate, and remember to love your local food system!