UMass Chan Medical School celebrated the unveiling of its new Wellness Farm with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, Sept. 12.
The 40-foot hydroponic container farm can produce up to three tons of produce each year. The harvest will help combat food insecurity in the community by supporting food pantries in the Worcester Public Schools' North Quadrant schools and the Max Baker Resource Center, a student food pantry on UMass Chan's campus. It will also provide fresh produce to UMass Chan staff members in need.
"This will truly be a resource for the entire community," Chancellor Michael F. Collins said. "The harvest will help us build on our long-standing partnership with Worcester Public Schools. You can't do homework, you can't study and you can't have a good night's sleep if you're hungry. The fact that these children can bring home food, it's such an important thing."
© Bryan GoodchildA ribbon cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the opening of UMass Chan's Wellness Farm. From left to right: Suzanne Wood, Josh Lighton, Senator Robyn Kennedy, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista, Mayor Joe Petty, Chancellor Michael F. Collins and Valerie Wedge
UMass Chan partnered with 2Gether We Eat, a local nonprofit and community-based youth hydroponic farming program, to help organize and operate the Wellness Farm.
Josh Lighton, 2Gether We Eat's head farmer at UMass Chan, said, "With this farm, we're going to be able to grow up to 10,000 vegetables no matter what the weather is like, be it stone cold or red hot. What's in front of us now is a solution to hunger, and it's also an opportunity for us to grow our own food, from seed to harvest."
Lighton, a student at Quinsigamond Community College, oversees the farm's operations five days a week and is in charge of the farm's plant care, water and nutrient management, cleaning, pruning and transplanting.
© Bryan GoodchildJosh Lighton, 2Gether We Eat's head farmer at UMass Chan, shares details of the year-round farming process
Chancellor Collins was joined at Friday's ribbon cutting by U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, Senator Robyn Kennedy, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista and Mayor Joe Petty.
"It is fitting that UMass Chan is home to the city's newest wellness farm because access to nutritious food and health care are inextricably linked," McGovern said. "I'm grateful to UMass Chan for taking this step forward to better connect our community with nutritious produce."
"It's not just about feeding a child or feeding a family in the moment. It's about sustainable, healthy, grown, fresh produce here in our community, so that families, generations from now, can eat when we're faced with more difficult times," Kennedy said.
UMass Chan's Office of Well-Being collaborated with the Office of Sustainability and Office of Community and Government Relations to ensure the Wellness Farm meets its goals of providing more equitable access to nutritional food and distributing food to address the needs of families in the Worcester area.
Valerie Wedge, director of the Office of Well-Being, said, "The opening of this farm is a dream come true. We've been working toward this for several years and now we're growing food. I can't wait to distribute it to our community."
"The vision of the project was a connection to community and helping not only to address food insecurity on campus, but looking at food insecurity throughout out Worcester community and how we can address it in a way that's sustainable," said Suzanne Wood, director of sustainability and campus services at UMass Chan.
Source: UMass Chan Medical School
