A look back at 2016
with Ben Clark, Board Chair and Philip Korman, Executive Director
CISA at a glance
2016 Highlights
Local Food for All
Donors and businesses gave over $100,000 to:
Add 50 summer farm shares to our Senior FarmShare (SFS) program—we now give 500 low-income seniors a summer CSA share!
Matched SNAP at 22 farmers’ markets ensuring that $56,561 in taxpayer dollars and $43,868 in contributions from our community went to local farms.
“SNAP & Save is a huge piece of our market’s mission to provide
affordable food to people in need and to support our vendors, most of whom are small local farmers
and producers.”
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Grant
Thanks to a grant from the USDA, CISA staff ramped up work with some of the 100 farms that are just starting out—we’ll continue this work for the next three years.
Strengthening the Wholesale Market
Staff held focus groups and did in-depth interviews with 26 farms and businesses to learn about their needs related to wholesale buying. We’ll help supermarkets, restaurants, schools, and hospitals that provide local food to a lot of people source more locally. Read our most recent wholesale report.
“Working with CISA has helped us build strong partnerships and increase our local purchasing. CISA is an
integral part of our strategy to double our local purchases over the next four years.”
CISA in the news
Promoting Local Hero Businesses
Artisan Beverage Cooperative
The smell of freshly brewed tea fills the room—kombucha is on the production schedule today for Artisan Beverage Cooperative in Greenfield, and as General Manager Garth Shaneyfelt tells me, kombucha begins with tea. Through the magic of fermentation, the sweetened tea will soon be transformed into the popular tart and effervescent beverage known as kombucha.
Thanks to WRSI and Monte Belmonte, we’ve done 300 episodes of the “Local Hero Spotlight” since 2011!
Click to hear an interview with Dan Pratt from Astarte Farm done in 2016 as part of the "Spotlight" series.
Opinion: Hunger in the Season of Giving
This is one of CISA’s ongoing series of guest columns in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.How can we make local, nutritious food more available to more of our neighbors without squeezing local farms further or leaving them out of the discussion altogether?
No Cash Cows for Squeezed NE Dairies: Dairy Farmers Struggle with Low Prices, High Costs
Published in The Recorder, by Richie DavisThe lowing of cattle on Franklin County pastures like Deerfield’s Bar-Way Farm is nothing compared to the moaning of farmers experiencing months of the lowest prices they’ve seen in years.
Local Hero Restaurant Promotion
We worked with restaurants to help them tell their local food story—here’s a sample of one of the 28 different profiles we created about the relationship between farm and restaurant.
Cassandra: owner of My Main Squeeze and Kerisa: owner of Crow River Farm
“Cassandra is committed to the core to supporting local farms with her business,”says farmer Kerisa Fitzgerald. That commitment, Kerisa believes, has powerful effects. “We all need to pause more before we spend money on food or put food in our mouths. In that pause is the possibility to make better choices, choices that will not only impact our personal health, but the health of the local economy and community.”
2016 Partners
View more buy local programs in Massachusetts or our complete list of program collaborators.
Recognizing that farming is essential to our community, the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, Big Y and other businesses awarded 47 farms in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley infrastructure improvement awards to make farm improvements. The Local Farmer Awards are offered in collaboration with CISA and Berkshire Grown to our member farms.
Financials
Hover, click, or tap the charts below for more information. Download this pdf for a comparison with FY2015.
Revenue and Support
Expenses
Net Assets
Thank you to the 1,400 people who gave over $435,000 to support our work!
"I enthusiastically support CISA. It is essential to sustain and build thriving communities. With so much volatility and so many unknowns at the national and international levels, having a sturdy agricultural base is a powerful form of security. The organization is enduring, well organized, and well connected."
Fundraising
Thanks to the support of the community, we raised over $500,000 from individuals and businesses to support our work in 2016. That is the most CISA has ever raised from the community! View the complete list of donors for 2016 on our website.
We are so grateful and humbled by your belief in our work and your love of the Valley and local food.
There are many ways to support our work from monthly giving to naming CISA as a beneficiary in your estate planning. Go here to learn more.
CISA is very pleased to acknowledge the funding partners whose grants and generous financial contributions provided critical support for our work.
We’d like to thank all our business sponsors, your investment in the community is tremendous and appreciated. A special call out to our top business supporters in 2016:
View a complete list of our current business partners.
Board of Directors
as of 12-31-16
Ben Clark, Chair
Nancy Hanson, Vice Chair
Pete Solis, Treasurer
Elizabeth Wroblicka, Clerk
Glenroy Buchanan
Al Griggs
Helen Kahn
John Kokoski
Gene Kosinski
Beth Lorenz
Rachel Moore
Risa Silverman
Casey Steinberg
MA Swedlund
Staff
Philip Korman, Executive Director
Margaret Christie, Special Projects Director
Kelly Coleman, Program Director
Regina Gillis, Financial Manager
Lisabeth Jasniewicz, Development Coordinator
Claire Morenon, Communications Manager
Innocent Nwosu, Program Coordinator
Stevie Schafenacker, Program Coordinator
Alexis Breiteneicher Schneeflock, Development Director
Brian Snell, Communication Coordinator
Aja Talarico, Program Associate
Devon Whitney-Deal, Local Hero Program Manager
Jennifer Williams, Office Manager
Kristen Wilmer, Program Coordinator