Mayor Walsh Awards Urban Farming Institute with
2017 Greenovate Boston Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mayor Walsh Awards Urban Farming Institute with
2017 Greenovate Boston Award
BOSTON – At a ceremony on Wednesday April 19, the Urban Farming Institute was awarded with Mayor Walsh’s 2017 Greenovate Boston Award for Sustainable Food. The Greenovate Award recognizes organizations employing innovative solutions to advance Boston’s climate and sustainability agenda.
The Urban Farming Institute (UFI) uses vacant land to create green jobs and entrepreneurs in Boston’s underserved neighborhoods. UFI fuels the growth of urban farming in Boston, as the driving force to legalize urban agriculture, raise public support, build new urban farms, and train the next generation of farmers. In 2013, UFI sparked, co-wrote, and paved the way for the passage of Article 89, the breakthrough zoning revision which created the framework for commercial urban agriculture in Boston, now used as a model nationwide. Also in 2013, UFI successfully lobbied for the allocation of $8 million in state funding for urban agriculture infrastructure projects across the state. And each spring, UFI hosts the regional convening of the sector, at its annual Urban Farming Conference, co-hosted by the MA Department of Agriculture.
UFI offers a 29-week farmer training course each summer, offering job training opportunities focused towards residents of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan – the communities surrounding its farmsites. As UFI’s training manager, Roxbury-native Bobby Walker, often says, “We don’t just grow food, we grow people.” Many of UFI’s trainees are often at a disadvantage in the formal economy: individuals re-entering the workforce after incarceration, immigrants facing language barriers, and single mothers providing for themselves and their families. “If it was not for the UFI Urban Farmer Training Program I have no idea what I would be doing and I have to say it saved my life,” says Chris Mables, a UFI alum. UFI’s farmer training graduates have successfully gone on to jobs with Commonwealth Kitchen, The Food Project, and Codman Square NDC Ballou Farm, among others.
UFI aims to be a part of solving the global climate crisis while also providing economic opportunity for all. This summer, UFI will enlist a new cohort of local residents in its farmer training course, engage over 700 community volunteers, and sell produce at farmer’s markets. This winter, UFI will move into its new headquarters at the historic Fowler Clark Epstein Farm in Mattapan, which will serve as the regional hub of urban farming innovation and public education.
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