Boston is on the cusp of dominating the urban agriculture scene. With the likes of the Boston Public Market coming in 2015, the ground breaking of an urban farm in Roxbury back in July and the passing of Article 89 (the City’s first urban agriculture zoning) in December 2013, Boston’s various homegrown food aspects need an aspect of cohesion.
On Friday, October 24, Mayor Walsh and the City of Boston’s Office of Food Initiatives announced that The Hub will be receiving a $25,000 planning grant courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP).
“Urban Agriculture creates jobs and food access points in Boston’s neighborhoods,” said Mayor Walsh in a statement. “Aligning the goals and strategies of all constituents engaged in urban growing will allow us to better leverage resources, and to work more efficiently toward food system resilience in the City of Boston.”
According to City Hall, the grant will be used to bolster an Urban Agriculture Visioning Group that, at this early stage in the game, is focused on building upon the efforts already in the works, such as those aforementioned.
It will also be used to hire a facilitator who will help create and organize the Visioning Group, which will be tasked with developing a playbook for general food production in the City.
Gabrielle Farrell, spokeswoman for Mayor Marty Walsh, confirmed with BostInno that the facilitator will be a third party candidate for which the Office of Food Initiatives is currently interviewing.
“The Visioning Group will be made up of a steering committee,” Farrell added. “They’ll host open meetings for everyone to attend and focus on engaging as many constituencies as possible.”
Article 89, which you can read right here, is one of former Mayor of Boston Tom Menino’s capstone initiatives that provides the framework for the kinds of endeavors this Visioning Group will surely undertake.
Stay tuned to BostInno for more information on how this $25,000 check will be put to use. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts about urban agriculture in the comments section below.
