‘These reductions directly impact thousands’

LEOMINSTER – Growing Places is one of many local community-focused organizations that are feeling the pain from state and federal budget cuts.Ayn Yeagle is the executive director of the city-based nonprofit whose mission is to actively engage in the North Central Mass regional food system and strengthen community capacity to transform that system.“Growing Places works to bring the community together to address the high rates of nutrition insecurity as diet related diseases are the number one cause of death in our country,” she said.

“To do this we connect local food grown in our communities to our community using multiple strategies that fill access gaps.”Growing Places staff and volunteers at the Leominster Farmers Market selling local produce and distributing boxes of local fresh produce through the Fresh Box program, which will not be renewed and is set to abruptly end in May due to budget cuts. (COURTESY GROWING PLACES)One of the primary ways they do this is by leveraging nutrition benefits for low-income households through the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), a state program that puts money back on your EBT card when you use SNAP to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from HIP-participating farm vendors.



The state announced that due to a budget shortfall, beginning in December the maximum HIP benefit would be $20 a month for all households, regardless of size. This is more than a 50% reduction for many households as previously, prior to the HIP reduction, the program provided $40, $60, or $80 per month depending on household size.In addition to HIP home deliveries, Yeagle shared that in order to support local farmers and increase access to healthy foods, Growing Places currently provides 150 to 200 boxes of local fresh produce every week through the Fresh Box program in the amount of $60 per box to families and individuals across the North Central Mass region.

“This program will not be renewed and is set to abruptly end in May,” Yeagle said, adding that last year the Fresh Box program provided more than $400,000 of local produce purchases for their farmers.“These programs are made possible through federal and state funding, and they reach thousands of households each year and directly support 33 farmers in North Central Mass,” she said. “We were more reliant than ever on the Fresh Box program to ensure we could continue to support local farmers and nutrition insecure households.

With the end of the federal funding that supports our Fresh Box program, we will not be able to purchase and distribute $12,000 of local produce to our community each week beginning June 1st.Growing Places staff and local legislators inside the Leominster based nonprofit organization’s new food processing center in Gardner. (COURTESY GROWING PLACES)“These reductions directly impact thousands of our community members, including farmers and households who rely on these programs,” Yeagle continued.

The federal government subsidizes most of our food, but our small farmers do not get subsidized, so it affects them most.”When it comes down to it, she said Growing Places “is working to make our communities healthier by lifting-up what we already have and providing the extra support that is needed so everyone can be healthy and earn a living wage.”“In reality they could just sell their land for development,” Yeagle said of the farmers, one of the potential long term detrimental effects of the budget cuts.

“This whole thing is really a problem. It’s not just about the consumers; it’s also about the farmers.”She conveyed that as a dietician that focuses on nutrition and wellbeing at the public health level, she values the work they do through Growing Places “because most people cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables, and our farmers do not have the time or resources that are required to have multiple market channels.

”“It helps the small farmers, and it helps the community members, and it really does what it’s supposed to be doing health wise,” Yeagle said. “We need to come together as a community more than ever an support each other.”.