It's been a banner year in Kathy Frechette's garden. In just the last month she's harvested 15 pounds of cherry tomatoes. Despite the bounty, she's determined not to waste a single piece of fruit.
"Don't forget to get up and under," Frechette instructs her teen-age niece as they fill a paper bag with tomatoes.
Her plants are thriving in a newly opened community garden just down the street from her home in Lowell. It offers industrious residents like Frechette access to something that's often out of reach in this neighborhood: fresh food. Although the nearest grocery store is only a couple of mile away, for Frechette - who has no car and survives on a disability check - getting there requires lining up a ride.
" It could take days," says Frechette. "I've seen where I've needed something and someone would say - okay - I'll take you and something comes up and they call and say, oh, I can't get to you today."
It's not just an inconvenience. Public health advocates say a lack of easy access to a full service grocery store is a health issue, tied to higher rates of diet-related disease such as obesity and diabetes. When her garden goes dormant, Frechette will have little choice but to rely on stores within walking distance.
"There's a 7-11 around the corner," says Frechette, referring to one of the many convenience stores that dot Lowell's neighborhoods. "They're limited because they sell cooked food, so they don't sell much produce."
Neighborhoods like the one where Frechette lives are often called 'food deserts'. They exist not only here in Lowell, but in low income areas across the Commonwealth.
"There is no full line grocery accessible to people who live in Mattapan Square,” says Rebekah Gewirtz, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. “We know that Mason Square in Springfield has been trying to get a grocery store open for years and years."
Advocates of increased access to fresh food have won an important battle: the state established a Massachusetts Food Trust. The idea is to offer grants and low interest loans to businesses and non profits committed to bringing fresh produce to under served neighborhoods.
It's welcome news to Francey Slater who co-founded Mill City Grows, a non profit that brings fresh food to neighborhoods across Lowell via a mobile mart - imagine a small farmer's market on wheels.
"It could mean increased grant funding for the mobile market to expand, essentially doubling the number of stops and locations," says Slater.
Mill City Grows operates two urban farms that supply fresh fruits and vegetables to thousands of Lowell residents. It's an impressive effort, but not a wide-scale or even year-round solution. Slater would like to see more neighborhood stores selling produce and believes, with help from the Food Trust, they could expand.
"We found in our work with the mobile mart that low income customers are really excited to buy fresh produce," says Slater. "There's a real market opportunity."
The legislature authorized six million dollars to fund the Massachusetts Food Trust, but that money has not yet been released.
"We feel optomistic that we can advance programs to a place where money is appropriated and get programs up and running," says Gewirtz. " In other states they've leveraged between 9 and fifteen dollars in private and federal funds for every one dollar of state funding. It's a win win."
