The Island Grown Initiative (IGI) has received a nearly $600,000 grant from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey’s administration to help meet growing food needs on the Vineyard.
The nonprofit received $588,475 through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ (MDAR) Food Security Improvement Grant. Noli Taylor, co-executive director with IGI, said they will use the funds to upgrade the farm’s food processing, storage, and distribution infrastructure, and to install generators for energy resilience and safe food storage.
The food security improvement program is administered by the MDAR and is designed to provide more equitable access to locally grown, raised, harvested and caught foods. In mid-October, the Healey administration announced that 113 organizations received a total of $22 million.
Also on the Vineyard, the Net Result received about $14,000 and the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc. received $112,000 in similar grants from the state.
IGI also announced that they were awarded $100,000 to help strengthen the farm to school supply chain on the Vineyard. The nonprofit received funding through the Henry P. Kendall Food Vision Prize, a New England-based foundation. Taylor said funding would help aggregate, source and deliver local and regional foods to all seven public schools to use in school meals and to help sustain farmers and fishermen in the offseason.
“We are very excited to work with our cafeteria partners in all of our schools and with local farmers and regional aggregators/distributors on this project,” Taylor said. “The work we do to develop a ‘dashboard’ of regionally and locally available food for schools will also be used to increase local food in our IGI prepared meals programs, at the Island Food Pantry, and hopefully in other Island businesses and institutions.”
This is terrific news for Martha’s Vineyard. IGI deserves a lot of credit for pulling in this major state grant — nearly $600,000 — to upgrade food processing, cold storage, and distribution.
That kind of behind-the-scenes infrastructure isn’t glamorous, but it is exactly what keeps people fed year-round, especially when the weather or ferry cancellations make everything harder.
Anyone who lives here knows food insecurity isn’t some distant issue. More than a third of Vineyard households have needed food assistance recently. That’s stunning. We live in a place known for summer abundance, yet many year-round families are stretched thin by housing costs, seasonal jobs, and limited transportation. IGI has been a lifeline — rescuing extra produce, partnering with Island farmers and fishermen, and turning it into healthy meals that people are proud to serve at their tables.
The added funding to strengthen the farm-to-school pipeline is big. Getting local food into all seven public schools isn’t just good nutrition — it teaches kids where food comes from and helps keep Island growers going in the off-season.
It’s great to see the Net Result and the Shellfish Group also get support. Land and sea — it all works together.
The state got this one right.
White House Press Release
Let them eat cake.
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