Quabbin Food Connector

07/14/2026

We’re just catching up with Diemand Farm’s post now - so nice to see this! It was indeed a lovely visit.

07/01/2026

All good things must end, and that's true of this latest round of our Protein Bundles program, funded through a state earmark grant that is wrapping up this week.🙏

We were thrilled to share monthly bundles of high-quality protein-centered food, much of it from local sources, with 70 low-wealth households through four partner organizations over the past seven months. And we were able to put together one more round of bonus bundles for an additional 40 households through Quabbin Harvest, with the many good things you can see in the photo. 🥒🍅🥚🥓🥩🧈🍚🍝🥔🧅

We're grateful to Quabbin Harvest's staff and volunteers for all the logistical and administrative help, and to Marty's Local for being such a vital link in our local and regional food supply chains. 🚛💪👩‍🌾 And of course to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, Senator Jo Comerford's office, and our partners Valuing Our Children ARRSD Family & Community Center LaunchSpace and Quabbin House. It's been a busy and exciting year! And we're looking forward to restarting the program later in the summer, along with the leadership-building project we've been developing alongside the food distributions, too.

06/30/2026

What a beautiful day to visit a favorite local farm! We’ve been holding monthly gatherings for participants in the “Protein Bundles for Healthy Eating” program since winter and the group decided it would be fun to get to know one of the farms that have been providing the good food in the monthly distributions.

So off to Diemand Farm we went, for a tour led by Annie and Tessa followed by a scrumptious lunch on the lawn. We met baby turkeys and chicks and some cows and we learned how to pack eggs like the pros do it. We’re grateful to the Diemands for their hospitality and to Senator Jo Comerford’s office for securing the earmark grant that made this round of the program possible.

ARRSD Family & Community Center Valuing Our Children LaunchSpace Quabbin House Quabbin Harvest

05/18/2026

We had another great gathering with members of our emerging community leadership cohort today. After just two previous meetings, participants have already been coming forward to share their skills and ideas, and to teach each other about cooking and food preservation from different cultural and culinary traditions.

We're excited for a planned farm field trip next month and a possible continuation of these get-togethers after the summer is over.

Thanks to everyone who attended, organized, cooked, and helped clean up! And thanks to our community partners at Quabbin House, ARRSD Family & Community Center, Quabbin Harvest, and Valuing Our Children. And thanks, as always, to the office of Senator Jo Comerford for obtaining the earmark grant that is funding these gatherings and other good things.

04/17/2026

We had a great time today at the second of our spring gatherings with partners and participants in the share programs based at Quabbin Harvest. Katie and Gaige showed us how to make the co-op’s signature kale salad and then we dug into the big bowl of salad and other good things. We had table discussions to plan our next gathering, and then we went outside in the lovely spring weather and Deb showed us how to make an easy little colander garden.

These gatherings are bringing people together to start developing new leadership and advocacy partners within our local food security and food justice work. We’re excited to be doing this with the state funding secured by our own Senator Jo Comerford, and with help from Quabbin Harvest, Valuing Our Children, ARRSD Family & Community Center, LaunchSpace, Quabbin House, and Seeds of Solidarity. And we were grateful to be able to hold today’s event at the beautiful community room of the Athol Public Library.

03/24/2026

We were thrilled to convene the first of our planned community-building events with partners and participants in the Protein Bundles for Healthy Eating program this past Monday. It was a great gathering with rich conversation and wonderful food (and mango lassi, mmmm!).

We'll hold a follow-up get-together in April and then see where things go from there. It's been fantastic to be distributing generous monthly bundles of protein-centered food with the funds from our state earmark through Senator Jo Comerford's office. But we don't want to stop there--we're working to build stronger conversations and connections around food security and food justice in the North Quabbin, along with these fantastic neighbors and friends! Cheers!

Valuing Our Children ARRSD Family & Community Center LaunchSpace Quabbin House Quabbin Harvest

01/24/2026

We held our Annual Meeting today in the upstairs room at Quabbin Harvest, followed by a gathering with four of our current community partners in the ongoing Protein Bundles for Healthy Eating program. We're excited to start planning for a new component of this project, which will bring together participants across different roles to share ideas and experiences (and food!) over the next few months.

ARRSD Family & Community Center LaunchSpace Valuing Our Children Seeds of Solidarity Quabbin House/Clinical & Support Options Inc.

01/10/2026

We're happy to be a partner in Quabbin Harvest's "Community Shares" programs!

One of our favorite moments of the year is to look back on the previous year's set of "Community Shares" programs and think about how much good food we were able to distribute to our neighbors through our various community partnerships, fundraising efforts, and our own resources of staffing, volunteers, and facilities.

Last year's total was down from the previous couple because of the cutbacks in the Healthy Incentives Program in the first part of the year and the delays in re-starting the Protein Bundles for Healthy Eating program. But still, an average of nearly 60 shares a week went out the door every week, y'all! That's pretty amazing.

This all takes a village, or maybe several villages (and a supportive state government). We're grateful to everyone who plays a role. We don't know of another small grocery store with this kind of very active and extensive food access program and we're proud to pursue this as a central part of our mission!

Friends of the Athol Council on Aging Orange Council on Aging
ARRSD Family & Community Center Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts CISA The Farm School GAAMHA, Inc. LaunchSpace Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance - DTA North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival Quabbin Food Connector Quabbin House (Clinical & Support Options Inc.) Seeds of Solidarity the office of Senator Jo Comerford Stone by Stone Farm, the Town of Orange Valuing Our Children

12/11/2025