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Date: 7/25/2023
CHICOPEE — Fruit Fair Supermarket in Chicopee was one of 165 awardees to receive funding to improve food security and resiliency across Massachusetts.
On July 20, Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov Kim Driscoll, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle visited Fruit Fair to announce over $26 million in funding of projects through the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program. Accompanying them were several state and local officials.
The Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program was created to combat urgent food insecurity resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The recent flooding in Western and central Massachusetts is expected to have a further impact on food security in Massachusetts, as many impacted farms play an important role in combating hunger,” Healey’s office said.
They continued, “Healey-Driscoll administration officials have been assessing damage at farms and discussing recovery and mitigation efforts over the past week. The FSIG program is designed to ensure farmers and other local food producers are better connected to a strong and resilient food system. For the first time in the history of this program, the administration prioritized projects that support organizations impacted by drought or extreme weather events.”
During the press conference, Healey began by thanking Driscoll for her efforts, as she has been reaching out to communities impacted by the flooding and weather, as well as her work in supporting the local food infrastructure.
“All the food producers and providers who are with us today — thank you for the critical, essential work that you do — feeding our communities, feeding people all across our state,” Healey said.
By visiting the flooded farms and listening to the farmers affected by it, Healey said, “I think it really drives home food security and what it means in the state,” as many of those farmers are putting food on families’ tables across the state.
She continued, “I think we know more than ever now how dependent we are on our local providers and how grateful we are” to the farmers, fishers and others.
“We are also really grateful to people like Sam and Jared Newell,” owners of Fruit Fair, said Healey.
Healey noted that the grants will support farmers and providers from Williamstown to Rehoboth. “We are fortunate to be here in Chicopee today, but today’s announcement is indeed going to cover the entire state,” she added.
“This is our greatest challenge, but it is also our greatest opportunity,” said Tepper. “These grants show some of the opportunities we have to bring that forward.”
Randle recognized Fruit Fair for their “tremendous job” in providing for the local community.
To all the grant recipients, she said, “We’ll continue to move forward past this, there’s hope — there’s been a lot of heartbreak — but there’s hope to move forward and these grants today will help with that.”
Sam Newell said, “It is a happy day for us as we are taking the first step toward building a climate-controlled rooftop greenhouse which will yield thousands of pounds of healthy food — flood or famine — for our marginalized community and help combat climate change.”
The supermarket was awarded $500,000 for this project, which was the maximum amount the grant allowed.
Sam Newell explained that a project like this has “tremendous tangible positive impact” in improving food security, healthful eating, preventing diseases and bringing equity and generational health to environmental justice neighborhoods.
“We only had a dream of feeding the community with homegrown, healthy foods,” Sam Newell said.
She went on to thank the Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture for helping Food Fair — along with other farmers and food producers like them — strengthening farms, local food businesses and engaging the community to assist in building a food economy.
Mayor John Vieau recognized the Newell’s for the creativity of the rooftop greenhouse, as he is not aware of any other grocery store doing that. “There’s the easy way and there’s the Chicopee way,” he said.
Randle shared that some other projects include farms building greenhouses and buying refrigerated vans to help get their produce to market.
For more information regarding the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program, visit mass.gov/service-details/food-security-infrastructure-grant-program.