Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP)

271 Grant St. Buffalo, New York 14213 Phone (716) 882-5327 Fax (716) 882-5338

"Building the local community through food, urban farming and entrepreneurship"

 
   
:: Buffalo Grown Partners
Buffalo Grown is innovative in that it brings together partners from all sectors of the food systems including farmers, businesses, youth, elders, schools, the University at Buffalo and social service organizations.  MAP will work with the following initial partners on this project.  As public awareness grows we anticipate attracting other partners.

Native Offerings Farm- (Little Valley, NY) - Farmers Deb and Stew Ritchie will provide fresh organic produce from their farm once a week.  Growing Green youth will sell this produce and supplement it with produce grown at MAP’s urban farm.

Oles Family Farm and Promised Land CSA- (Alden, NY) - Daniel and Jane Oles donate two Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares each week. Growing Green youth will sell this produce and supplement it with produce grown at MAP’s urban farm.

Dr. Samina Raja, Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo- Dr. Raja will coordinate and oversee evaluation of this project.  Dr. Raja has worked with MAP programs for several years and oversaw the authorship of the national award-winning report Food For Growth, a Community Food System Plan for Buffalo's West Side.

Santa Maria Towners (SMT)- A senior housing development on Buffalo's West Side, residents cook all of their own meals but have limited access to grocery stores.  Growing Green youth piloted a successful on-site market during the summer of 2005.  SMT will be a market stop once a week.

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus- The BNMC is in full support of this project and will be a market site for MM, providing regular healthy food access to their over 8,000 employees and 750,000 visitors.

Buffalo Grown Farm to School - MM will collaborate with high schools within the Farm to School network- a coordinated initiative to increase assess to fresh, affordable food to students and their families. 

Food Ventures Entrepreneurs- FV entrepreneurs will collaborate with the MM to increase and promote local food and businesses.

Rich Products- Rich Products has agreed to store the Mobile Market in their secured parking lot. 

 

 

The Buffalo Grown Mobile Marketplace, a new economic development project of the Massachusetts Avenue Project, will bring organic, locally-grown, affordable produce, diverse locally-made food products, education and resources to Buffalo's low-income neighborhoods and beyond.

Urban youth from MAP's Growing Green program will partner with local farmers, Food Venture's entrepreneurs, and community partner sites to produce and market healthy food to the city of Buffalo's residents.  An RV has been painted and retrofitted to be a mobile grocery.  This market will travel twice a week, to at least four partner sites (two on the East Side and two on the West Side), including a school, a public housing complex, and a senior housing complex- all serving populations that lack access to quality, affordable, and culturally-appropriate foods.

Buffalo Grown will be a unique and accessible venue for providing information, education and resources about nutrition, home and community gardening, and micro-enterprise training opportunities at community partner sites, city-wide cultural events and festivals.  Project outcomes include increasing access to markets for local entrepreneurs while improving quality food systems; and promoting local entrepreneurs while improving quality food access to food insecure neighborhoods.  This project links Buffalo with a national movement creating community food systems, promoting local economic development, and increasing food access from the ground up.

The Massachusetts Avenue Project is excited to announce it will be starting this fall.  Contact Cyndie Huynh, Mobile Market Coordinator, for more information.