Our community has shared their concerns with local and state officials and this effort has made a tremendous impact.
Your voices have been heard!
We hear YOU and we share your desire for more transparency and a speedy resolution.
We thank you all for the tremendous responses to our request for community support, we are abundantly grateful.
If you have not yet shared your concerns, the most helpful action you can take now is to share your unique voice and communicate the ways the Field Station and the work that happens there matters to you.
Our collective tenant press release shares our official stance and we are managing the ever-evolving situation closely, including near constant communication with these representatives ourselves.
Links to Contacts for Local and State elected officials
NOW, is the time to contact officials at the University of Massachusetts and we ask you to share your voice!
Please call or email:
UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy, chancellor@umass.edu
UMass President Marty Meehan, umasspresident@umassp.edu
UMass Executive Vice President Jim Julian, umasspresident@umassp.edu
Urge them to:
- Preserve the Waltham Field Station's sustainable agricultural community.
- Extend tenant lease agreements beyond December 31, 2019.
Not sure what to say to UMass, State legislature or Waltham City Councilors? Here is a suggestion for how you may focus your communication:
"I urge your support for the preservation of the Waltham Field Station’s sustainable agricultural community, and the work that has been done to fulfill the comprehensive vision for a Sustainable Agricultural Center, one which honors the legacy of its benefactor, Cornelia Warren”.
The Field Station is important to me because {insert your experiences}.
Since 1995, Community Farms Outreach, d/b/a Waltham Fields Community Farm (WFCF), has stewarded sustainable farming practices at 240 Beaver Street in honor of the site’s rich agricultural history. Charitable harvests are integral to the founding vision of WFCF and they have an annual goal to distribute $80,000 of nutrient dense, farm fresh produce to the children of Waltham as well as food insecure families in Waltham and its neighboring communities through donations to emergency food programs, operating the Waltham Fields Mobile Outreach Market, a farm-to-school program with the Waltham Public Schools and the Waltham Boys & Girls Club, and a subsidized CSA share program. Since our germination, WFCF has distributed hundreds of thousands of pounds of organically grown produce to over 25 agencies within local communities. Our hunger relief efforts provide bushels of fresh produce to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and nutrition education programs supplying healthy nourishment to people in need.
A new generation of farmers is learning their craft at the Waltham Field Station. Over a thousand children annually are provided with hands-on learning, in our outdoor classroom, about how food is grown, the nutritional aspects of a healthy diet, natural ecosystems and group cooperation.
The services and benefits offered by WFCF to Waltham and the Greater Boston community will be significantly diminished should the Field Station and access to it be altered.
We must protect & preserve the farmland and open space at the Field Station for generations to come!"
Links to previous WFCF/Waltham Field Station website updates:
http://communityfarms.org/news/article/waltham-field-station-update-february-2019
http://communityfarms.org/news/article/preserve-the-waltham-field-station
