WALTHAM—About a month after being kicked out of a nonprofit health center on Main Street, a program that gives fresh vegetables to low-income women has found a home at the Arthur Clark Government Center.
The program, which provides the vegetables every Wednesday, was ordered out of the Joseph Smith Community Health Center at 564 Main St. because the building’s landlord said it violated a clause in its lease, said Julie Taylor Moran, the health center’s attorney.
The next week, the program was moved to the health center’s Allston location, according to center employee Natalie Tarbet. "It was awkward for the patients, but they came," she said.
Then the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Waltham allowed the center to use its parking lot for as long as the center needed it, said Meg Coward, executive director of Community Farms Outreach, the nonprofit organization in Waltham that provides the vegetables.
Community Farms Outreach teamed with the health center to provide fresh veggies to low-income women and their families two years ago. Employees and volunteers deliver boxes of vegetables to the center every Wednesday.
They are grown on about 7 acres on Beaver Street and 3 acres at the Lyman Estate.
Coward said the organizations are grateful for the church’s generosity, but decided to take the city’s offer of the Government Center because it is indoors. It is located at the corner of School and Lexington streets.
She said there was never a break in the food distribution.
Tarbet said Brenda Capello, the city’s personnel director, is the one to thank for the move. "Ms. Capello made it possible for the program, which last week gave produce to more than 20 women, to make its home at the Government Center," she said.
Capello was unavailable for comment yesterday.
"It’s been pretty amazing to see how much community support was rallied around the program," Coward said. "Many people really rose to the occasion. It’s such a positive ending to that saga."
Tarbet said the move was also supported by Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, who was not available for comment yesterday.
Speaking through a staff member, she said she cannot take credit for the move, but is glad the program found a location. "It serves a good purpose," she said.
Tarbet said the program runs through mid-October.
Jennifer Roy is a Daily News staff writer. She can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jroy@cnc.com.