Eastie Farm is pleased to announce that it has received Mass General Brigham Community Health Impact Funds to support Eastie Farm Food Security, its initiative to increase the number of free Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares distributed to East Boston residents facing food insecurity. This investment will expand access to healthy, locally grown foods for families in East Boston through partnerships with local farmers, food hubs, senior living facilities, and schools.

This award is part of $2 million in Community Health Impact Funds recently allocated to six organizations to strengthen local food systems across Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. These funds will increase the availability of Massachusetts-grown produce through food pantries, local food hubs, schools, and other distribution partners, in alignment with priorities identified in Mass General Brigham’s 2022-2023 Community Health Needs Assessment.

At Eastie Farm, we believe community health is essential to individual health. Equitable access to nutritious fresh food is critical for community health. We appreciate Mass General Brigham’s support and partnership in our endeavor to center food security in our work.

The awarded funding will allow Eastie Farm to expand their free food distributions by purchasing more produce, deepening connections with neighborhood partners, schools, food pantries, elderly living facilities, and farmers while also training youth in hands-on local food systems work through our paid fellowship program (Climate Corps).

“These investments are data-driven and community-informed, building on what we learned through our Community Health Needs Assessment and joint food access report with the Greater Boston Food Bank,” said  Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, Chief Community Health and Health Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham. “By addressing food access at its root through policy, systems, and environmental strategies, we can support healthy diets, reduce chronic disease, and improve access for families facing the greatest economic barriers.”

“This is the first time so many food access organizations across the region have come together in this way,” said Tracy Sylven, Regulatory Director, Community Health at Mass General Brigham. “This collaborative effort addresses long-standing gaps in the food system by investing in the infrastructure and relationships needed to make healthy food more accessible and sustainable.”

Eastie Farm offers free weekly produce shares to East Boston residents in need. Dunia, one of the participants in our free food program, said: “es una ayuda muy grande semanal y mas cuando estas cabeza de hogar tienes que buscar ayudas de este tipo para ayudar a tu familia a consumir su alimento ‘seguro’ semanalmente”

Translation:

“It’s a huge help every week, especially when you’re the head of the household. You have to look for this kind of assistance to help your family have access to ‘safe’ food every week.”

Funding from Mass General Brigham will allow Eastie Farm to provide more free food shares to more families in need of food.

Eastie Farm is a community-based non-profit organization that pursues climate justice, food security, and community resilience through urban agriculture, education, and the building of an equitable local food system.

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.