Community Meeting and Discussion of two Food Security Projects

You are invited to discuss and deliberate about two valuable western MA community based projects. The first is designed to connect food donors with recipient organizations along the I-91 corridor from Springfield to Greenfield (similar to but not the same as the Boston based smart phone app: “spoiler alert“). The second is a store in downtown Springfield (or in a location that would benefit the most people) that looks like an grocery and both sells and donates gleaned food. These two projects arose from a series of conversations and deliberations focused on food waste and sustainability held last year by the Center for Community Deliberation, in partnership with NEPR and The Kettering Institute. There is widespread interest in both projects and our goal is to build collaborations for planning and later implementation of some version of these ideas.

The next community meeting will focus on these two projects. The first part of the meeting Emily Malina, who helped develop Spoiler Alert, will discuss that model and then we will divide into smaller groups to discuss obstacles and resources to developing something similar in our own region. The second half of the meeting we will discuss various models for a gleaning grocery to assess community and donor interest in the various forms such a store might take, as well as location and logistics. Should the group decide to take up either or both of these projects, we will arrange and organize further collaborations as well as provide consultants where possible. These potential projects align with the MA state food plan and we are in conversation with the state collaborative to address and implement food loss and recovery plans.

Homemade will be provided. Please RSVP by email and pass along the invitation.