Governor Patrick Proclaims Oct. 24 as Massachusetts Food Day

Governor Deval Patrick celebrated Massachusetts Food Day and the launch of the Massachusetts Gleaning Network, a new project that will help collect leftover crops for emergency food providers, when visiting the Food Project Farm in Lincoln Monday.

“Massachusetts is working hard to increase access to healthier foods and encourage healthier lifestyles,” said Governor Patrick in a press release. “As part of our efforts, I am pleased to support the Massachusetts Gleaning Network, which will direct resources to our most vulnerable residents as winter approaches.”

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or from fields where it is not profitable to harvest, and providing this food to emergency food providers. The network will include farms, volunteers, service agencies, food banks and other organizations. Dozens of gleaning projects will be taking place across Massachusetts through early November by community groups that have recently joined the Massachusetts Gleaning Network.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR) will serve as a clearinghouse for the network and members will utilize this vetted information to help them participate in gleaning projects in their own communities.

During the event, Governor Patrick also proclaimed Oct. 24th as Massachusetts Food Day, as part of the national effort to promote access to healthier locally-grown food. State agricultural officials are hosting Massachusetts Food Day events across the state, focusing on issues such as improving diets, developing state and local food policies and celebrating a diverse food system comprising Massachusetts local vegetable, fruit and livestock farms.

“Food Day is a unique opportunity – nation-wide and locally – to bring residents, farming community leaders and state officials together to focus on key initiatives that support bringing nutritious, fresh and locally-grown products to our communities,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr.

The Commonwealth also marked the recent creation of a Massachusetts Food Policy Council. The council is charged with promoting locally-grown foods, developing programs that enhance access to healthy local food, protecting resources needed for sustained local food production and training farmers. Massachusetts also boasts a strong Farm-to-School program, with greater than two-thirds of the state’s 300 public school districts preferentially purchasing local agricultural products. The state ranks seventh in the nation for number of farmers’ markets.