"The Revolution Will Be Cultivated!"

MAP Youth at the 2017 People's Climate March in Washington D.C.

Our Advocacy and Organizing Pillars

At the Massachusetts Avenue Project...

We believe everyone has a right to nutritious, affordable, accessible and culturally relevant food.
We believe people and communities should have access to power, land and resources to define their own food and agricultural systems in harmony with natural systems.
We believe growers, local markets and eaters should drive local food systems and not corporations and policies that favor destructive and extractive practices.

MAP’s Advocacy and Organizing Work is grounded in these pillars, and is commited to:

Work to educate, engage, and support the future generation’s leaders through our Growing Green Youth Program.
Advocate for greater access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally relevant food by working towards equitable policy changes in Buffalo and NYS.
Supporting and creating opportunities for Buffalo residents to advocate for change towards a just economy.
Engage in meaningful work in service to our community and the earth.

2026 Advocacy Priorities

How to help:

Sign the support letter for “Establishing an Office of Food Systems and Urban Agriculture”

We’re proud to be organizing alongside a group of local food system stakeholders and community leaders to advocate for an office dedicated to food policy and urban agriculture with a community-led food justice advisory commission as a plank of Partnership for the Public Goods 2026 Community Agenda. MAP and other food system leaders and organizations have long been advocating for an office dedicated to food justice and prioritizing city policies, programs, and resources to allow everyone access to culturally-relevant and affordable food.

The Office of Food Systems and Urban Agriculture will work to support food justice and urban agriculture initiatives within the city of Buffalo with the goal of creating new pathways and supporting existing efforts that promote access to fresh, healthy, and culturally preferred foods for all Buffalo residents, but especially those who have historically been marginalized due to economic, racial, environmental or other structural factors. It could:

Increase food security resources and programs to ensure all Buffalonians can eat food that is culturally appropriate to them.
Monitor and explore policies to support the growth of local food entrepreneurs, food businesses, and food markets.
Expand urban agriculture policies, resources, and land access pathways for Buffalonians to grow culturally relevant produce safely.

Organizing to Establish Buffalo Office Dedicated to Food Systems and Urban Agriculture

How to help:

Sign the support letter for passing the NYS Good Food Bill NY

MAP is a proud member and partner of the Good Food Buffalo Coalition (GFBC), a coalition of over 30 member organizations working collaboratively to center racial justice in the Western New York food system. The GFBC uses the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) as a framework to align the ways our public institutions purchase food with our communities, and has been advocating for the passage of the Good Food Bill NY that reflects and builds on the GFPP at a state-wide level.

As partners we’re excited to announce that as of June 2026, The Good Food Bill New York passed both the NYS Assembly and Senate! MAP understands food procurement as a critical piece of our food system that can positively impact ALL food service workers to strengthen and build a more resilient local food system. We see the GFBNY as a pathway for New York to update their restrictive procurement laws to create a more equitable NY food system for public institutions like Buffalo Public Schools. Sign the Letter of Support here.

If you believe the Governor Hochul should sign the Good Food Bill NY, we encourage you to contact her office at (518) 474-8390 or by submitting a contact form voicing your support!

🍎 Supporting the Good Food Buffalo Coalition & the Passage of the Good Food Bill New York 🍎

🥬 Growing Urban Agriculture Policy & Education 🥬

As the first urban farm in the City of Buffalo, MAP naturally took up the “pitchfork of advocacy” to champion alongside community stakeholders and other urban growers the growth of urban agriculture programs, policies, education and resources that reflects the diverse cultures and communities who grow and eat food in Buffalo. MAP was instrumental in organizing for policy adoption that allows residents to own city chickens and we continue to organize for better urban farming policies.

We partner with Grassroots Gardens WNY and Urban Roots Cooperative Garden Market to host gardening workshops for new and novice gardeners, host soil screening and testing clinics, and show up alongside our partners who fight for an end to food and social injustices for the most marginalized communities in Buffalo.

Environmentally Friendly Invasive Pest Management

Pests, of all number of legs or stems, are always under constant management on the MAP farm ecosystem. This year, specialists from Cornell Cooperative Extension are supporting us in our integrated pest management (IPM) priorities to understand the “weed” profile of MAP’s urban farm, rat control methods and equipment like the BurrowRx, and cabbage field trials to name a couple!

Soil Screening & Testing

MAP advocates for local urban agriculture policies, programs and resources to assist Buffalonian’s in growing food safely, especially our new American, refugee and immigrant neighbors. Over the next couple years, we’ll be supporting and coordinating Soil Health Events offering free soil screening and consultations with urban soil specialists to the diverse growing communities in Buffalo.