hubS Certified Kitchens in Northampton Churches: • Establish relationships with churches that have a Board of Health-certified kitchen that individuals or businesses could use for creating value-added products. The kitchens are already certified and for the most part underutilized, but contact needs to be made to draft clearly written agreement on policy use.
Cul-de-sac Commons: • Establish a micro-hub for shared neighborhood compost, tool shed, and greenhouse that can offer material support to suburban cultivation efforts. Building infrastructure will support neighborhood gardening efforts, but will take leadership, time, and resources.
Municipal Composting Facility at Bleiman Property (city-owned land): • Draft a proposal for the city government that plans a citywide compost hub where biodegradable materials are collected from residents and brought to Bleiman to be metabolized into compost. Working with the city can take time, but there is a need to reduce waste going to the landfill; establishing a compost hub will turn unnecessary waste into compost ready for building soil in nearby farms and yards throughout the town. Organizing compost pick-up may have to start small, and over time, expand to encompass the whole city. Building the compost hub does not have to involve much infrastructure, and can be done rather quickly once a decision has been made to move forward.
educatioN Increase School Garden Program: • Expand program to other schools. • Integrate the garden into the curriculum. • Use produce grown there to contribute to the school lunch program. • Schools have open space that can be converted to gardens.
Mineral Hills Rural Agriculture Park (city-owned land): • Offer seminars for aspiring farms seeking best management strategies • Provide business training for small farmers • An organization offering educational services needs to be identified and engaged.
ciVic recommeNdatioNS Local Food Incentive Program: • Draft and submit to the city government a policy that can offer financial incentives to Northampton farmers who sell locally grown produce within city limits.
Farmland Preservation Policy: • Propose a policy intended to minimize the irreversible impact of converting farmland to nonagricultural uses. • Recommend that the city acquire farmland that is for sale, with the intention of keeping it in food production, or provide resources and support to organizations looking to accomplish the same mission.
Feed NorthamptoN appendices
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