From The John Merck Fund, one of FSNE’s network partners
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2020
New philanthropic collaborative supports region’s farmers and food producers in responding to COVID-19 and building a more food resilient future
BOSTON, Massachusetts—The John Merck Fund, The Henry P. Kendall Foundation and The 1772 Foundation announce the formation of a new philanthropic collaboration by awarding $347,000 in grants to eleven New England organizations that are addressing the needs of farmers and food producers as they respond to the enormous disruption in the region’s food system wrought by the COVID-19 crisis.
The New England Food System Resilience Fund is a joint philanthropic effort designed to reinforce, restore, and promote the resilience of the regional food system in a time of unprecedented disruption. The three phases will roll out over the course of the next twelve to eighteen months. The goal of the New England Food System Resilience Fund is to raise and deploy at least $1 million. The John Merck Fund has committed $500,000 and is leading the effort. The Henry P. Kendall Foundation has committed $250,000 and is providing a variety of supporting resources. The 1772 Foundation has provided $100,000. The foundation partners welcome other individuals and institutions to join them toward their fundraising goal.
The first eleven grants announced today comprise the first phase in the New England Food System Resilience Fund’s tripartite design: Reinforcement, Restoration and Resilience. Phase One provides immediate reinforcement for organizations that are creatively employing the many assets of the regional food system to respond to the COVID-19 disruption and position our region’s farmers and food producers for recovery. These organizations were nominated and their proposals reviewed by a group of regional food systems advisors.
Phase Two will support the recovery needs of the regional food system. As the emergency recedes, New England’s farmers, food producers and the organizations that support them will need additional resources to restore operations to pre-pandemic levels and turn the lessons of the coronavirus crisis into opportunities for building a stronger regional food system.
Phase Three will support longer-term planning needs within the regional food system focused on ensuring New England’s farmers and food producers and the organizations that support them emerge stronger, more resilient, and better equipped to feed the region through good times and bad.
According to its Board chair, Whitney Hatch, this new fund offers The John Merck Fund an important opportunity to support New England’s food producers as the foundation nears its sunset in 2022. “We were looking into how we might be of greatest use to our Regional Food Systems grantee partners in our final few years of funding, and then the coronavirus hit. We’ve been so impressed by how small farmers and food enterprises across New England have responded to keep their neighbors supplied with healthy food in the current crisis, even as the bigger food distribution system has faltered. We’re very glad to work with Kendall and 1772 to support our grantee partners as they respond to the crisis and as they look ahead for ways to use lessons from the crisis to build a more resilient future. And we hope many others will join us.”
Henry P. Kendall Foundation Executive Director, Andrew Kendall, said, “We are pleased to join with the John Merck Fund, the 1772 Foundation and hopefully others to pursue this shared priority. In just a few weeks, closures of institutions and restaurants left regional food producers without these critical markets for their products. The best way to help farmers, fishers, processors, distributors and others survive and recover is to join forces and work quickly to provide reinforcement and then aid in recovery when that begins.”
B. Danforth Ely, President of The 1772 Foundation added, “The 1772 Foundation is very pleased to be participating in this new fund to help address the enormous needs of New England farmers and food producers at this time of crisis. 1772 believes that by collaborating with other philanthropic organizations such as Kendall and Merck, we can maximize our grantmaking, and have the greatest impact.”
The founding partners intend this new fund to be as responsive as possible to real needs as experienced by farmers, food producers, farm- and food chain workers, food justice advocates, and others directly involved in New England’s food system. To that end, they invited a team of expert volunteer advisors to help review proposals from the organizations invited to submit to this first round of funding. The Review Team included:
- Sue AnderBois, recent past Director of Food Strategy for State of Rhode Island
- Eric DeLuca, Leverage Point Consulting
- Patty Duffy, Chief Lending Officer, Maine Harvest Federal Credit Union
- Laura Edwards Orr, Director of Institutional Impact, Center for Good Food Purchasing
- Jiff Martin, Connecticut Cooperative Extension Specialist
- Jeff Rosen, Chief Financial Officer, Solidago Foundation
- Annie Rowell, Director, Sodexo “Vermont First” procurement program at University of Vermont
- Sarah Waring, Vermont Community Foundation Program Director
The following are the first eleven grant recipients of The New England Food System Resilience Fund:
- Center for an Agricultural Economy, Hardwick, VT
- Communities Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, Deerfield, MA
- Crown O’ Maine Organic Distribution, North Vassalboro, ME
- Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Pawtucket, RI
- Food Connects, Brattleboro, VT
- Franklin County Community Development Corporation, Greenfield, MA, for the Western
- Mass Food Processing Center
- Maine Farmland Trust/Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, Belfast/Unity, ME
- Migrant Justice, Burlington, VT
- Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, Burlington, VT
- The Carrot Project, Boston, MA, for The Blueprint Initiative
- Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, Montpelier, VT, for the New England Food Systems
- Planners’ Community of Practice
- The New England Food System Resilience Fund founding partners welcome others to join them. For more information, contact Christine James, Executive Director, The John Merck Fund.
###
Contact: Christine James
Executive Director
The John Merck Fund
617-314-0524
cjames@jmfund.org
