Progress 07/01/23 to 06/30/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) and Grassroots Gardens of Western NY (GGWNY) are both located in low-income neighborhoods of Buffalo's East and West sides, and both work with very diverse, historically underserved populations.40- 50% of the youth we work with are new Americans and approximately 94% come from low-income households. GGWNY facilitates and stewards more than 100 community-led gardens throughout the City of Buffalo, over 90% of which are located in low-income census tracts. More than 25 nationalities/cultural backgrounds are represented throughout the GGWNY community garden network and among MAP's Mobile Market customers. These individuals bear the brunt of food insecurity in the City of Buffalo so we work in solidarity with them to promote greater food equity. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?MAP and GGWNY staff participated in several professional development opportunities over the past year. In September of 2023, MAP and GGWNYstaff traveled to Philadelphia to represent Buffalo and meet with and learn from urban agriculture and food health equity programs from 5 other cities including Detroit, Cleveland, Fresno, Baltimore, and Philly. 3 of MAP's Mobile Market staff attended the National Mobile Market Summit held in Phoenix, AZ in March 2024 and learned from Mobile Market programs across the country. MAP's Kitchen Manager completed Master Canning training offered thru Cornell and MAP's Youth Director completed Restorative Justice facilitator training. Through the work of increasing staff connection and engagement with gardeners, GGWNY has been able to enhance the level of training and skills development of gardeners across our network, with long-term independence as a goal. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our results are disseminated with key partners and the larger community through both MAP's and GGWNY's newsletters, facebook pages, Instagram, and annual reports. In August 2023, some of the work of this project was also shared with the community during a city-wide Urban Farm Day attended by over 200 people. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will continue to: Work with Community garden and Zone Leaders to assist with garden maintenance and stewardship and mentor new gardeners Build stronger connections between individual volunteers and existing garden leaders, continuing to bolster support systems for long-term sustainability Procure local produce from the local farms we currently work with, and identify new farms to source from with a focus on BIPOC, women and LGBTQ growers Distribute local, affordable and culturally appropriate food at 14 city-wide market sites in food insecure neighborhoods and 2 University of Buffalo locations Increase accessibility of nutrition education and cooking classes Continue to support small-scale food entrepreneurs with kitchen access and business development opportunities Continue to recruit, employ and train 50 low-income youth in sustainable food systems, food-based enterprise and food and climate justice Continue to build allies to advocate for a Land Disposition Policy for the City of Buffalo
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Buffalo Food Justice Project has made progress on our goals during this reporting period as follows: Anticipated Outcome 1:. Community garden access, engagement and leadership by BIPOC communities will grow by 15% and food access will increase by maintenance of at least 105 community gardens From July 2023 to June 2024, Grassroots Gardens of WNY supported up to 114 community and school gardens in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. As of June 30, 2024, GGWNY is partnering with 112 gardens across the region, having welcomed 8 new gardens in Spring '24, which includes 4 community gardens and 4 school gardens. 5 of the 8 gardens are located on the East Side of Buffalo in predominantly BIPOC communities, and continue to increase GGWNY's presence and support in such neighborhoods. 12 of our existing gardens requested and received additional raised beds in Spring '24, continuing to increase the amount of food grown directly in communities and neighborhoods.Our staff engagement with garden leaders increased by 35% from 2023 to 2024, tracked by the number of consultations, garden visits, and volunteer groups we facilitated at community gardens, with a similar level of increase in activity from BIPOC garden leaders. In Fall of 2023, we officially concluded our Garden Leadership Committee, and using information and input collected, began planning for our formal individual volunteer program, which we officially launched in February of 2024. While this work is beyond the direct scope of this project, it is a direct outcome of feedback and conversations from BIPOC garden leaders, and will lead to long-term sustainability and support for many community gardens. Anticipated outcome #2: 15 regional (urban and rural) farms will have a regular market outlet thru MAP's Mobile Market. At least 5 of these farms will be BIPOC, women or LGBTQ owned/led farms. In the second year of this grant the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) purchased food from 20 farms both urban and rural to supply MAP's Mobile Market. 5 of these farms were urban farms and 15 were regional within 100 miles of Buffalo. We prioritized purchasing from BIPOC, women and/or LGBTQ owned farms and 7 of these farms met these criteria. 96% of all the produce we distributed through our Mobile Market was locally sourced from within 100 miles. Anticipated Outcome #3: At least 6,500 households, (16,000 individuals annually) will have increased access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and nutrition education. At least 60 residents will complete cooking classes During this reporting period, MAP increased nutritious, locally sourced and affordable produce to 7,843 households through 13 weekly Mobile Market sites. 4 of these markets sites were new and located on Buffalo's East Side in primarily African American neighborhoods. To ease the growing economic hardship and food insecurity experienced by many Buffalo residents, MAP's markets accept SNAP, Farmers Market Nutrition vouchers, Veggie Rx vouchers, Double Up Bucks and our own 50%discount program for anyone with a financial need. In addition, we offered a pre-order, discounted food box delivery program and delivered 1,187 reduced rate produce boxes from July to December 2023.205 residents attended free and sliding scale cooking classes offered in MAP's Commercial Kitchen. Classes included Pakistani Cooking, Sushi Rolling, Vegan Cooking and Sourdough baking, to name a few. Anticipated Outcome #4:At least 40 food entrepreneurs (10 annually), will have access to a commercial kitchen and will successfully complete business planning classes to grow their businesses. At least 50% of those food entrepreneurs will be BIPOC, women or LGBTQ folks MAP supported 16 small-scale food entrepreneurs, including 7 BIPOC owned businesses, with commercial kitchen access. Entrepreneurs include caterers, specialty product makers, bakers, and food truck operators. We have also been able to promote some of the value-added products made by entrepreneurs at our markets, providing them with an additional revenue stream. Anticipated Outcome #5: At least 80 youth (20 youth annually) will create and market at least 6 new value-added products made from locally sourced ingredients that represent cultural foods During the last year, 42 youth have been involved in value-added product development, culinary training and nutrition education activities. They had the opportunity to work with trained chefs and learned knife skills and food safety protocols.Some of the products created for sale this year include Mushroom Meatballs (based on a family recipe from one of our youth), bone broth, kimchi, vegan pesto, and several varieties of pickles. All of these products were made with locally sourced ingredients and helped reduce food waste. Anticipated Outcome #6: A youth-led catering initiative will be established In July and August of 2023, groups of 6 youth weekly made seasonal and cultural meals for 35-40 diners every friday during the summer months. Meals included recipes from the diverse cultural backgrounds of the youth including Native American, African Diaspora, Puerto Rican, and Polish foods. Youth continued piloting an in-house catering program at MAP that was launched earlier in 2023, holding the 4th of 4 seasonal dinners in October 2023. Outcome 7: At least 50 low-income youth annually, (200 total) ages 14-20, will be employed and trained in sustainable food production, enterprise development and food and social justice advocacy and have opportunities to complete apprenticeships in these areas During this reporting period, 45 teens (ages 14-20) were employed and trained at MAP, gaining job skills and a knowledge of sustainable food systems, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. Youth received leadership training during our 6-week summer program and 30-week school year programs. In addition to working at our urban farm, Mobile Market sites, and in our commercial kitchen, youth learned about social justice and the impacts of our food system on climate change. Of these 45 youth, 8 were hired in Apprenticeship positions, taking on more responsibility, gaining more skills and working more hours. These apprentices, who had completed at least 1 year of our program, have become skilled peer-teachers to the new youth in our program. During the summer of 2023, 2 Alumni of our program returned as Team Leaders for our youth program, and in the spring of 2024 one alumni of our youth program was hired on staff as part-time Farm Education Coordinator at MAP. Anticipated Outcome #8: A municipal Vacant Land Reuse for Public Benefit Policy and other policy in support of urban growers will be recommended to the City of Buffalo for adoption. As reported previously, this policy brief was submitted in the last report cycle for consideration by the City of Buffalo. Unfortunately, the City has been slow to commit to adopting any of the policy recommendations thus far. No formal progress or response has occurred, though our goal of research, advocacy, and policy submission has been reached. GGWNY, MAP and other partners continue to push for conversations with our Real Estate Division on better protection and access to land for urban agriculture.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/22 to 06/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) and Grassroots Gardens of Western NY (GGWNY) are both located in low-income neighborhoods of Buffalo's East and West sides, and both work with a very diverse, historically underserved population. 40- 50% of the youth we work with are new Americans and approximately 94% come from low-income households. GGWNY facilitates and stewards more than 100 community-led gardens throughout the City of Buffalo, over 90% of which are located in low-income census tracts. More than 25 nationalities/cultural backgrounds are represented throughout the GGWNY community garden network and among MAP's Mobile Market customers. These individuals bear the brunt of food insecurity in the City of Buffalo so we work in solidarity with them to promote greater food equity. The Buffalo Food Justice Project was designed in partnership with low-income youth, community residents, and small urban and rural growers, intends to link regional efforts to support a sustainable food system, and increase food self-reliance, healthy food access and enterprise development opportunities. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?MAP staff participated in a few Professional Development Opportunities over the past year.MAP's Mobile Market staff attended the National Mobile Market Summit held in Chapel Hill in March 2023 and learned from Mobile Market programs across the country. MAP's Farm Manager attended a Cornell Farmer Development program and MAP's Kitchen Manager completed ServSafe training. We had planned to send our Youth Education Director and 5 youth to the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) conference in November but it was unexpectedly cancelled. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our results are disseminated with key partners and the larger community through both MAP's and GGWNY's newsletters, facebook pages, Instagram, and annual reports. In August 2022, some of the work of this project was also shared with the community during a city-wide Urban Farm Day attended by over 150 people. As mentioned in Objective #8 outcomes above, several public meetings have been held to discuss the work of the Vacant Land Task Force, and we continue to update interested community members via GGWNY's email listserv. Our community partners and participants in the Vacant Lot Task Force have held events such as bike tours that stop at City-owned lots hosting community gardens, showcasing the potential for vibrant community development efforts that could occur with a more robust land disposition policy. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will continue to: Work with Community garden and Zone Leaders to assist with garden maintenance and stewardship and mentor new gardeners Procure local produce from the local farms we currently work with, and identify new farms to source from with a focus on BIPOC, women and LGBTQ growers Distribute local, affordable and culturally appropriate food at 15 city-wide market sites in food insecure neighborhoods and provide nutrition education and cooking classes Hold business development classes for small-scale food entrepreneurs and develop protocols and marketing materials for youth catering pilot program Continue to recruit and employ 50 low-income youth in sustainable food systems, food-based enterprise and food and climate justice Continue to build allies to advocate for a Land Disposition Policy for the City of Buffalo
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Buffalo Food Justice Project has made progress on our goals as follows: Anticipated Outcome 1:. Community garden access, engagement and leadership by BIPOC communities will grow by 15% and food access will increase by maintenance of at least 105 community gardens Grassroots Gardens of WNY continued to support 109 community gardens in Buffalo and Niagara Falls throughout this reporting period, including 4 new community gardens and 1 new school garden in 2022. All four new community gardens are located on the East side of Buffalo in predominantly African American communities, and two of the gardens continued expanding for a second season in the Spring of 2023, when the community demand outgrew the initial raised bed installation, and with one garden, Celtic Place Community Garden, extending into a neighboring vacant lot. Coincidentally, this garden is located only a few blocks from the site of the tragic Tops massacre in May 2022, and was immediately able to provide fresh produce for community food pantries and community refrigerators in the neighborhood, while also functioning as a designated location for trauma processing and grieving on the anniversary of the shooting in 2023. In March of 2023, we began convening long-time garden leaders from BIPOC gardens for the purpose of planning out long-term leadership development and sustainability for their respective gardens. Anticipated outcome #2: 15 regional (urban and rural) farms will have a regular market outlet thru MAP's Mobile Market. At least 5 of these farms will be BIPOC, women or LGBTQ owned/led farms. In the first year of this grant the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) purchased food from 17 farms both urban and rural to supply MAP's Mobile Market. 5 of these farms were urban farms and 12 were regional within 100 miles of Buffalo. We prioritized purchasing from BIPOC, women and/or LGBTQ owned farms and 5 or these farms in the first year met these criteria. 94% of all the produce we distributed through our Mobile Market was locally sourced from within 100 miles. Anticipated Outcome #3: At least 6,500 households, (16,000 individuals annually) will have increased access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and nutrition education. At least 60 residents will complete cooking classes In the first year of this grant MAP increased nutritious, locally sourced and affordable produce to 7,527 households through 10 weekly Mobile Market sites. In May 2023, MAP acquired a second Market truck andsuccessfully leveraged additional funding to hire 2 additional market staff, allowing us to increase the number ofweekly market sites to 15 in 2023. To ease the growing economic hardship and food insecurity experienced by many Buffalo residents, MAP's markets accept SNAP, Farmers Market Nutrition vouchers, Veggie Rx vouchers, Double Up Bucks and our own 50%discount program for anyone with a financial need. In addition, we offered a pre-order, discounted food box delivery program and delivered 1,524 reduced rate produce boxes in 2022.147 residents attended free and sliding scale cooking classes offered in MAP's Commercial Kitchen. Classes included Cooking 101, a Somali Cooking Class, an Indian Cooking class, a How to make Tamales class and others. Anticipated Outcome #4:At least 40 food entrepreneurs (10 annually), will have access to a commercial kitchen and will successfully complete business planning classes to grow their businesses. At least 50% of those food entrepreneurs will be BIPOC, women or LGBTQ folks MAP supported 12 small-scale food entrepreneurs, including 6 BIPOC owned businesses, with commercial kitchen access. Entrepreneurs include caterers, specialty product makers, bakers, and food truck operators. We have also been able to promote some of the value-added products made by entrepreneurs at our markets, providing them with an additional revenue stream. Anticipated Outcome #5: At least 80 youth (20 youth annually) will create and market at least 6 new value-added products made from locally sourced ingredients that represent cultural foods During the last year, 31 youth have been involved in value-added product development, culinary training and nutrition education activities. They had the opportunity to work with trained chefs and learned knife skills and food safety protocols.Some of the products created this year include Elderberry syrup, Do Chua (Vietamese pickles, Kimchi, Baba Ganoush, Toum (lebanese garlic spread), and several frozen soups. All of these products were made with locally sourced ingredients and helped reduce food waste. Anticipated Outcome #6: A youth-led catering initiative will be established In November 2022, MAP launched a youth-led, in-house, catering pilot program working with a core group of 6 youth employed in our Growing Green Program.Youth planned to host 4 dinners over the course of the first year to test out seasonal recipes, menus, outreach, pricing, etc.To date they have held 3 of 4 dinners with the fourth scheduled for October 2023. One of the challenges we face is how to design menus that can be made the day before events, as all of our youth are in high school and some of the renters hold their meetings during the workday, making it difficult for youth to be present. We have 2 youth involved in the catering initiative who are home-schooled and have more flexible schedules and can be present for these eventsbut this will not always be the case. Outcome 7: At least 50 low-income youth annually, (200 total) ages 14-20, will be employed and trained in sustainable food production, enterprise development and food and social justice advocacy and have opportunities to complete apprenticeships in these areas During this reporting period, 47 teens (ages 14-20) were employed and trained at MAP, gaining job skills and a knowledge of sustainable food systems, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. Youth received leadership training during our 6-week summer program and 30-week school year programs. In addition to working at our urban farm, Mobile Market sites, and in our commercial kitchen, youth learned about social justice and the impacts of our food system on climate change. Of these 47youth, 8 were hired in Apprenticeship positions, taking on more responsibility, gaining more skills and working more hours. These apprentices, who had completed at least 1 year of our program, have become skilled peer-teachers to the new youth in our program. Anticipated Outcome #8: A municipal Vacant Land Reuse for Public Benefit Policy and other policy in support of urban growers will be recommended to the City of Buffalo for adoption. The Vacant Lot Task Force includes broad coalition of community organizations and community members, with the support of the Partnership for Public Good (PPG). The goal of this Task Force was to advocate for a City of Buffalo Land Disposition Policy that prioritizes community benefits. Task Force meetings have taken place consistently on a monthly basis over the last year, with an average of 8 to 10 attendees from various communities. The Task Force convened with city planners from cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago, and obtained insight on how they worked alongside communities to address land use policies in their cities. Additionally, the Task force organized and hosted two public Town Hall meetings for public input and information sharing. One was an in-person meeting in November 2022 with over 70 attendees, and the following was a virtual meeting in April 2023 with over 60 attendees. The Task Force attracted attention from City officials, and the newly appointed Director of Real Estate for the City of Buffalo attended both sessions. From this research and community input, a finalized version of policy recommendations was submitted to the City of Buffalo. Unfortunately, the City has been slow to commit to adopting any of the policy recommendations thus far.
Publications
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