Vision Statement for the Cornelia Warren Farm Center

A Community Outreach Center of the University of Massachusetts and Partners in Waltham, Massachusetts
February 2003

NOTE: This document is a concept paper from the Vision Steering Committee of Friends of Cornelia Warren Farm at the University of Massachusetts’s Waltham Field Station. It is not officially endorsed by the University of Massachusetts, nor of any other group. This concept paper is based on input gathered from tenants and users of the Field Station. It is meant to stimulate discussion about how the Field Station might be used in future years. In addition, it is expected that continued discussion and input from all site stakeholders, as well as, community and neighborhood residents would be invited to further refine this document.

Mission

To preserve the historical and ecological integrity of Cornelia Warren Farm and to promote its use as a place where the public can learn about and become involved in revitalizing urban agriculture, community-based food systems, and our continued connection with the land that supports us all.

Goals

To preserve the historical legacy and significance of the Cornelia Warren Farm bequest, including maintenance of buildings with significant historical value and archiving of materials that document the site’s history.
To educate the public about the historical significance of this farm, the Waltham Field Station, and links between our agricultural past and future through coordinated programs and events organized and hosted by public-interest organizations using the site, in cooperation with U-Mass.
To foster public dialog and action on Massachusetts food, farming and sustainable land-use issues through meetings, workshops and conferences.
To provide land for farming, gardening and sustainable land-use projects that serve the public interest. This includes the current non-profit CSA, community garden, public rose garden, in addition to demonstration plots for educational purposes, and field sites for non-profit horticultural or forestry organizations.
To provide low-cost office and meeting space for public-interest organizations working for sustainable food production and supply, forestry, horticulture and land-use.
To move toward arrangements by which the site is maintained by its users with oversight of U-Mass administrators, on-site revenues are consistently above on-site expenses, and additional financial support by the University of Massachusetts is not needed, while meeting other goals of the Cornelia Warren Farm Center.

Public Services to be Provided by Cornelia Warren Farm Center

Existing Services (to be continued)

Meeting space for governmental and public non-profit organizations working for sustainable food production and supply, forestry, horticulture and land-use. (e.g., New England Rose Society, New England Daylily Society, Massachusetts Orchid Society, Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets, the National Park Service).
Low-cost office space and facilities for public-interest organizations working for sustainable food production and supply, forestry, horticulture and land-use.
Coordinated tours and volunteer opportunities for K-university students, churches and community organizations, and Girl Scouts from the adjacent Cedar Hill property.
>Green Rows of Waltham (GROW), a thriving community garden which has expanded in 8 years to approximately 148 plots cultivated by area residents. In keeping with Greater Boston community gardening policy, growers pay a small fee.
Waltham Fields Community Farm, continuing more than 100 years of food production on the 57-acre farmsite and dairy. The Farm has been operated as a charitable, non-profit farm for 8 years and as community-supported agriculture (CSA) for the past 5 years, with approximately 150 participating families and deliveries to local pantries and shelters. In return for an annual fee, each shareholder receives a large box of fresh produce every week during the growing season, and the satisfaction of being able to provide fresh food to homeless and at-need people in this area. Shareholders and volunteer groups from schools, churches and social service agencies come to the farm every week to work.

New Services

We propose to create a 501(c)3 organization to interface with University of Massachusetts administration, manage the site and rental arrangements, pursue funding opportunities for expansion of programming, and coordinate those programs. Specific services to the public to be provided include:

Coordination of a series of public seminars and events presenting different views on Massachusetts environmental policy options, food supply and farm preservation, and land use.
Archiving and cataloguing of materials with historical significance, in cooperation with the Waltham Historical Society and the University of Massachusetts.
Signed nature trails and a boardwalk showing different habitats, sites of historic interest, and specific problems (e.g., wetland and vernal pool characteristics and value, forest and brush habitat, soil changes with organic agricultural practices, identification of invasive species and control strategies).
Coordinated internships for high school and college students with the CSA or one of the organizations housed at the Farm Center.
Additional educational opportunities described below.

Programming and Income Generation Possibilities

A. Continue and expand current income-generating activities.

Charge minimal rent for office space, utilities, and maintenance of shared facilities. As the Waltham Field Station has reached full occupancy, rents have become almost sufficient to pay the operating costs of the main building. However, it is critical that rents are not viewed as the primary source of income, because this would rule out use by many nonprofit organizations that fit within the Farm Center’s mission.
Expand the availability of Extension Service workshops and other U-Mass programs on land management, fruit/vegetable production, and urban ecology (with registration fees for those who participate, and a percentage going to the Farm Center) to provide a stronger and more visible urban role for Extension, while building an urban constituency.

B. Raise seed funds from governmental programs or private foundations to establish new income-generating activities. As part of these seed grants, business plans would be drafted to ensure that projects become self-supporting.

Establish an indoor/outdoor Waltham Public Market on the site to give farmers and crafts people in the Greater Boston area a year-round sales venue for their produce and value-added merchandise, and generate revenue through a rental fee charged to vendors. Growing numbers of towns are creating public markets to give their local economies a big boost and enhance public life. Public markets tend to become the nucleus for social activity and revitalization of a community. Examples of award-winning markets are the City Market in Kansas City, Missouri; Granville Island Market in Vancouver, British Columbia; the River Market in Little Rock, Arkansas; Chinatown Night Market in San Francisco; and the Ithaca Farmer Market in New York. The Boston area has no such market at present. Although plans developed by the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture a few years ago for a large public market in the South End foundered on political shoals, they elicited considerable enthusiasm in the Boston area. The Waltham Public Market could serve the Farm Center’s educational mission through displays, booths staffed by volunteers from public-interest advocacy organizations, and informational materials posted for distribution. The horticultural societies and CSA based at the Farm Center could also raise funds by selling bedding plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Create a Market Gardening Museum. The Field Station was important to Massachusetts agriculture for several decades, and Waltham was part of a ring of towns that fed Boston through market gardening. Exhibits could highlight the contributions of Massachusetts agricultural researchers to vegetable and fruit production, while educating the public about changes in the ways Americans have produced and distributed their food over time, and effects of changing land use patterns and food supply on the American environment and diet. Exhibits on farming and agricultural research, farm markets, urban forestry and historic preservation might be maintained in collaboration with governmental and nonprofit organizations housed at the Farm Center.
Develop a non-profit Environmental Citizenship Learning Program (fee for service basis). Molly Anderson, Director of Tufts Institute of the Environment, has proposed a Greater Boston Environmental Citizenship Learning Program administered through Tufts University to mobilize the collective knowledge and resources of university faculty and students; concerned citizens; and environmental professionals from government agencies, municipalities, and the private sector. Participants would investigate ecological integrity and ways it is being threatened, learn how to protect valuable natural places and the services they provide, and learn how to manage these areas and restore damaged lands. The Environmental Citizenship Learning Program would focus on four areas in which society’s attempts to meet basic human needs have come in conflict with limits imposed by nature, resulting in depleted and degraded land and other nonrenewable natural resources, damaged ecosystem services, and reduced ecosystem resilience. Through seminars, a public lecture series, and community service-learning projects, the Learning Program would explore how society can provide:
Secure food supplies that do not pollute water, destroy topsoil, fragment or destroy wildlife habitat, kill non-target populations, and use excessive amounts of fossil fuels in processing and transporting.
Clean freshwater for drinking, food production, industry without contamination of rivers and lakes, depletion of aquifers, and destruction of wildlife habitat.
Healthy homes and cities where people can live and work without exposure to contaminants, air pollution, and environmental conditions that foster the spread of disease.
Energy to provide heat, light, power and mobility without global warming from greenhouse-gas emissions, traffic congestion, and pollution. The Learning Program would offer courses in content areas and skills such as farm and open-space preservation, native and invasive species, landscaping with native plants, improving energy efficiency in homes and small businesses, Geographic Information Systems, local food systems analysis, and community asset mapping. The Learning Program also would coordinate internships with community-based organizations or government agencies (including those housed at the Farm Center), organize public forums to discuss environmental issues, administer certificates, and arrange transfer of credit to participating universities.
Start an Environmental Citizenship Fellows Program with up to eight Environmental Citizenship Fellows paying low rents for residence at the (renovated) Cornelia Warren Farmhouse. Environmental professionals with at least five years of experience in environmental management through the public, private, or civil-society sectors and university faculty members on sabbatical would be eligible for fellowships of six weeks to six months. Fellows would carry out independent plans of study and help to mentor students in the Learning Program.