NORTHAMPTON — Federal funding to the tune of $413,000 will help Grow Food Northampton, the nonprofit that focuses on sustainable farming and food justice, build a barn, add new farms and offer more community garden plots at its 121-acre parcel in Florence.

“(The barn) will serve all of the farmers on the community farm,” Executive Director Alisa Klein said. “It will also have educational classrooms for community education of food systems, and will also be a place for farmers to store produce and other functions that are related to their farms.”

The barn will be constructed on the southern parcel of the organization’s community farm, located near the juncture of Spring and Meadow streets in Florence. The federal money was earmarked by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern as part of Congress’ recent $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.

Grow Food’s community farm includes 10 small farms and a 320-plot community garden. Klein said the organization will look to expand in these areas with some of the federal money.

The funding for Grow Food is one of 15 projects earmarked by McGovern to receive federal dollars within his congressional district, totaling more than $18 million. The setting aside of funds for Grow Food should come as no surprise to followers of McGovern’s political career, as the congressman has strongly advocated for issues pertaining to food security throughout his time in office.

“These projects were the result of community conversations with stakeholders across this district,” said McGovern in a statement. “As Chair of the House Rules Committee, I worked hard to make sure the funding for these vital causes was included in our end-of-year spending bill.”

Klein acknowledged McGovern’s advocacy in supporting issues related to food security and thanked him for the funding, adding that in a post-pandemic world, the issue of providing sustainable food is more important than ever.

“Grow Food Northampton’s profile has been elevated in the community and is attracting more funding, because people realized the national food system is essentially broken,” she said. “Because we were able to step up during the pandemic and ensure every single person in the community was getting fresh, local farm-produced foods, I think it really made people understand the importance of this concept of creating a just and resilient local food system.”

2 more grants total $80K

In addition to the federal earmark, Grow Food has also received two grants totaling more than $80,000 from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

The first, a $50,600 Community Development Block Grant, will go toward funding Grow Foods’ mobile market program, delivering free produce to low-income housing neighborhoods in Northampton.

The second, a $30,000 flexible funding grant, will help the organization pursue its racial equity work.

The project is one of three earmarks from the federal omnibus bill to be distributed in Hampshire County. The other two are the $1.1 million for the Jones Library renovation project in Amherst, also earmarked by McGovern, and $2 million for the Worthington Senior Center, earmarked by Rep. Richard Neal.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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