Implementation
Progress Toward Our Goals
Many actions are underway in this thematic area from various partners but here are some highlights.
- IGI has secured a location in Oak Bluffs for a permanent home for the Food Pantry with warehouse space. Move in date is 2024 with plans for solar and battery back-up for energy resilience
- Native seeds are now incorporated into the Community Seed Library!
- Grants in 2022/23 allowed the MV Fishermen's Preservation Trust to purchase, process, and donate over 4,600 lbs of whole fish, 75 lbs of sea scallops, 110 lbs of lobster, and 760 clams to islanders in need.
- The MV Tick Program is compiling training materials for new hunters and in collaboration with IGI donated and distributed 10 deer amounting to ~400 lbs of venison through the Island Food Pantry and other local food equity providers in the 2022 hunting season.
- For more updates, take a look at our 2023 Progress Report!
Island Food Security
Our Main Challenges
Disruption of the supply chain from the international to the local levels. Shipping, trucking, and ferrying food to the Island is becoming increasingly unpredictable, as are national and international food availability and prices.
Increased demand for local food as the climate changes will be constrained by lack of affordable housing and access to affordable land.
Growing inequity among food-secure and food-insecure populations, as climate change increases the cost of food, stresses supply chains, and increases climate-driven immigration.
Island Food Security
Food Sustainability
Watch this video as we dive into what a sustainable food system means to islanders in the face of a changing climate.
Island Food Security
Growing Insecurity
Food insecure households are growing on the island, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the island’s deepening affordable housing crisis.
- The Island Food Pantry saw a 103% increase in child visits and an 84% increase in elder visits between 2019 and 2021.
- These numbers are continuing to climb: there was a 40% increase in Pantry visits between February 2021 and February 2022.
Goals and actions will focus on ensuring all people have access to healthy and nourishing foods on a regular basis and during emergencies. Actions also aim to provide our indigenous population with greater access to lands for ceremony and food gathering practices.
Island Food Security
Food Security During Emergencies
There is a 2-day supply of food on Island to meet community food needs, putting our food security at risk if we’re cut off from the mainland for prolonged periods of time. Climate change could disrupt our supply chains. To minimize these potential impacts, actions focused on ensuring there is a 2-week supply of food available, improving local food production, and building regional-based product supply chains.
Island Agriculture
Local Food
Part of our work to improve food security will include supporting the existing agricultural operations while encouraging new aquaculture and fishing on the Island. There are already 32 land-based farms and 14 aquaculture farms on the Island that provide our community with fresh, local food.
Check out this interactive map of local farms!
Collaboration
Thematic Working Group Members
Liaision – Island Grown Initiative | Lyndsay Famarris |
Alison Custer | Sebastian Hiatt |
Jen Randolph | Merrick Carreiro |
Steve Bernier | Anne McDonough |
Dan Martino | Emma Green-Beach |
Eric Glasgow | Shelley Edmundson |
Pete Lambos | Carole Vandal |
Naji Boustany | Beckie Finn |
Leah Palmer | Amira Madison |
Meg Athearn | Carla Cuch |
NaDaizja Bolling | Tysonnae Aiguier-Bolling |
How You Can Help
Take Action to Improve Our Food Security!
