Monday's agriculture website of interest: THE FOOD PROJECT

Today's agriculture focused website to share is The Food Project, a Massachusetts based group encouraging leadership through farming. The group's mission is to grow a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system. They produce food for residents of the city and suburbs and provide youth leadership opportunities while supporting others to create change in their own communities.

The group was organized in 1991, and works with over 140 teens and thousands of volunteers yearly to farm on 31 acres in rural Lincoln, MA, 9 acres in Beverly and Ipswich, 2 1/2 acres in Boston and 1 acre in Lynn. The group considers their hallmark to be a focus on identifying and transforming a new generation of leaders by placing teens in unusually responsible roles, with deeply meaningful work. Each season, The Food Project grows nearly a quarter-million pounds of food, donating half to local shelters. The remainder of the produce is sold through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) crop “shares” and farmers’ markets.