GREENFIELD — Just Roots, the Greenfield Community Farm, wasn’t delivering food prior to 2020, instead focusing on the “market experience” of customers getting to pick out their own farm share boxes of produce.
But that was before the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jessica O’Neill, the farm’s executive director.
Today, Just Roots serves 250 families in Franklin County and another 150 families in Hampden and Franklin counties, with plans later this year to expand to another 50 to 100 families in Brockton and surrounding towns in Plymouth County with health care partners including Boston Children’s Hospital and Partners Accountable Care Organization.
And this week, Just Roots received $98,950 from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Food Ventures Program to buy two refrigerated vans to keep up with delivery.
Wellspring Harvest in Springfield received the other grant announced this week, $35,000 to purchase a refrigeration unit for its mobile farmers market vehicle.
The goal of the program is to increase access to healthy, affordable food options and improve economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income communities.
O’Neill said Just Roots has been using secondhand trucks. A partner will handle deliveries in Brockton, but he vans are needed here.
“We’ve been limping along,” she said. “As you can imagine any farm does.”
Founded in 2011, Just Roots is a production farm and community garden. It started reinventing the farm-share model in 2013, working to get more low-income and underrepresented families involved.
“And COVID forced us into delivery,” she said. “That is not something we were planning.”
The fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and eggs come from Just Roots and from area partner farms.
In 2016 Just Roots became the largest SNAP-enrolled community-supported agriculture farm share program in the state.
“We are grateful for the MDAR award, which will be leveraged to address key barriers to food access such as transportation; ensuring the food we grow reaches the doorsteps of those who are disproportionately impacted by a lack of local food access,” O’Neill said.
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