2013 CPA Report
GROW FOOD NORTHAMPTON, INC
PO BOX 849
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
(413) 207-5899
GROWFOODNORTHAMPTON.COM
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Adele Franks, President
Chris Bakker, Treasurer
Susan Pincus, Clerk
Tom Benjamin
Joe Blotnick
Sue Crimmins
Hope Guardenier
Gaby Immerman
Pandora Redwin
Johanna Rosen
STAFF
Lilly Lombard, Executive Director
Laura Hilberg, Administrative/Program
Coordinator
NORTHAMPTON
COMMUNITY FARM
Crimson & Clover CSA
Florence Organic Community Garden
Mockingbird Farm
Sawmill Farm Collective
Slow Tractor Farm
The Farm Education Collaborative
John Frey
CPA Staff Planner
Northampton Office of Planning & Development
March 14, 2014
Dear John,
Please accept this 2013 report of Grow Food Northampton’s CPA-funded
project: Creation of the Florence Organic Community Garden (FOG).
Grow Food Northampton completed its second year of our build-out of FOG.
With CPA funds, private funds, in-kind donations and over 1000 logged
volunteer hours, we undertook the following projects and doubled the number
of garden plots available to the public (from 110 to 225):
• Installation of permanent, internal gravel roadways
• Completion of irrigation system
• Installation of a shade structure
• Construction of composting outhouse
• Creation of infrastructure for our Resource Areas
• Temporary signage
• Acquisition of additional hand tools
• Completion of internal body of shed
• Planting of nut tree grove, community bramble patch, medicinal herb
garden, and expansion of the edible hedgerow
• Groundbreaking of a nature-based children’s play area
Programmatically, we held numerous gardening workshops and two large
community events at the FOG, trained every gardener in organic growing
methods, and managed two Hunger Relief plots which donated over 1000
pounds of vegetables on a weekly basis to a local soup kitchen.
In 2014, Grow Food Northampton is scaling back the rate of our site
development in order to strengthen our internal capacity to manage and
sustain high quality work (eg we will hire a Volunteer Coordinator and focus
on creating systems and structures for effective long-term site and program
management). Therefore, we will likely undertake more modest development
projects at FOG (permanent signage creation, permanent staking, and
installation of 2nd shade structure) throughout this year, and plan to complete
CPA-funded site development in 2015.
Thank you for the opportunity to report our project’s success. Please feel free
to share this update with the Community Preservation Committee, and contact
me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Lilly Lombard