Kudos to Atlas Farm for expanding food access

Kudos to Atlas Farm for expanding food access

Congratulations and thanks to Atlas Farm for using its Mobile Market to make healthy local food available to residents of Franklin County and Holyoke. This is a great way for Atlas Farm to expand its retail base and strengthen food access in our community.

With food insecurity on the rise since the pandemic, getting local farm foods to community members experiencing food insecurity and hunger is more important than ever before. For this reason, a number of nonprofit organizations in the region have increased their distribution of locally produced foods.

Since April 2020, Grow Food Northampton’s Mobile Farmers Markets have provided over 800,000 pounds of free locally grown produce and other farm foods weekly to over 2,300 residents of 16 low-income housing communities throughout Northampton. Hilltown Mobile Market has served 600 food-insecure residents of the Hilltowns in Western Hampshire County over the last few years, and Amherst Mobile Market has sold $30,000 worth of market value local produce to food-insecure Amherst residents, as well.

We are fortunate to live in a community where nonprofit organizations and local farms care about serving the needs of neighbors who are unlikely to have access to fresh food without programs such as these.

Donna Wiley

Grow Food Northampton board member, Whately

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