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The Mayor’s Workplace of Housing introduced the highlights and accomplishments of GrowBoston: Workplace of City Agriculture during the last yr. By means of progressive applications and focused investments, GrowBoston continues to broaden city agriculture, enhance meals safety, and improve group inexperienced areas throughout town.
“I’m so pleased with what our staff has completed this yr,” mentioned Shani Fletcher, Director of GrowBoston. “By increasing alternatives for native growers and beekeepers and supporting communities to determine new meals manufacturing areas, we’re constructing on a long time of labor to make meals manufacturing extra accessible and sustainable. These achievements are a testomony to our staff’s dedication to making a greener, more healthy Boston for all.”
All through 2024, the GrowBoston Grassroots Open House Improvement Program awarded seven grants totaling $950,000. These funds, starting from $50,000 to $150,000 per undertaking, will help neighborhood-based teams in Roxbury, Mattapan, Charlestown, and Jamaica Plain. The grants goal to develop and enhance group gardens and open areas in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Chosen via a rigorous evaluation course of, the initiatives had been evaluated primarily based on design, group participation, and alignment with the Metropolis’s range, fairness, and inclusion rules.
As a part of its Raised Mattress Grant Program, GrowBoston allotted greater than $385,000 to 6 initiatives, enabling the development of 532 raised backyard beds throughout Boston. These gardens will improve native meals techniques, offering low-income and food-insecure households with the assets to develop their very own produce. This system underscores the Metropolis’s dedication to addressing meals insecurity whereas empowering residents to take an lively function of their meals manufacturing.
“At The Meals Undertaking, my favourite a part of the job is supporting folks taking the step to develop their very own meals,” mentioned Danielle Andrews, Boston Farm Supervisor for The Meals Undertaking. “Final week, we put in a raised mattress for an aged girl who had lately misplaced her husband and moved in together with her daughter in Dorchester. Gardening had been a childhood pleasure for her, and she or he was desirous to reconnect with it whereas sharing the expertise together with her grandchildren. Individuals apply for raised beds for a lot of causes—psychological, bodily, non secular well being, educating their kids, or saving on groceries. Each story is significant, and I’m grateful to the Metropolis of Boston for supporting a program that helps construct more healthy people and communities.”
Additional bolstering this effort, the City Agriculture Ambassador Program awarded a complete of $352,000 to 4 grantees in East Boston, Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury. Every grantee will present one-on-one backyard schooling and technical help to residents benefiting from the Raised Mattress Program. These ambassadors may also facilitate group workshops, making certain that public services and native gardeners obtain the help they should thrive.
A groundbreaking bee ordinance, crafted in collaboration with Metropolis Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune’s workplace and the Inspectional Providers Division (ISD), was handed this yr. This ordinance removes beekeeping from the zoning code and locations it within the municipal code, making it allowable citywide underneath particular tips. Beforehand, beekeeping was permitted in solely a small portion of Boston, forcing many to hunt variances or function with out authorized approval with a view to interact on this side of city agriculture. This variation displays Boston’s dedication to fostering sustainable city agriculture practices whereas making certain compliance with native rules.
This yr, GrowBoston revealed the 85-page City Agriculture Suggestions Report, a complete information to strengthening Boston’s city agriculture panorama. The report contains 22 suggestions and 225 sub-recommendations designed to broaden meals manufacturing, enhance entry, and promote sustainability throughout town. At present in its second part, the GrowBoston staff is prioritizing actionable methods from the report and actively working towards implementation, paving the best way for future progress in Boston’s meals techniques and inexperienced initiatives.
The accomplishments of GrowBoston in 2024 replicate the Metropolis of Boston’s dedication to fostering resilience, sustainability, and fairness via city agriculture. By empowering native growers, collaborating with Metropolis Council in addition to Metropolis businesses, and creating vibrant group areas, GrowBoston is laying the groundwork for a more healthy, greener future. The Mayor’s Workplace of Housing will proceed to champion these efforts, making certain that each one Boston residents have entry to the assets and alternatives wanted to develop, thrive, and join with their communities.
GrowBoston’s purpose is to extend meals manufacturing and help native meals producers in Boston, together with gardeners, farmers, beekeepers, and extra. Our work builds on the long-term work of the Mayor’s Workplace of Housing (MOH). MOH, via the Grassroots Program, has been supporting the event of group gardens, city farms, meals forests, and different open areas via land disposition and capital funding for greater than 25 years. We work to extend food-growing areas all through Boston. We help the implementation of progressive meals manufacturing methods, similar to rooftop rising, vertical rising, and hydroponics. GrowBoston supplies technical assist to potential and current gardens and farms. Our staff develops academic and different meals manufacturing assets for gardeners, farmers, and residents. We accomplice with sister businesses to leverage public services to extend meals manufacturing. We additionally coordinate with different Metropolis departments to make meals manufacturing extra accessible in Boston.
