Legal Food Hub year in review

Despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic, farmers are doing the essential work of feeding our communities and stewarding our working lands. Local food businesses are springing up again, creating jobs and making our communities more vibrant. Nonprofit organizations across the region are improving food access, making farmland available to beginning farmers, educating our communities about how to grow food, and cultivating urban farms. We are grateful for all of these hardworking folks and thankful that the Legal Food Hub plays a part in supporting them.

This year, we helped 126 farmers and food businesses get the legal help they need with the support of our wonderful pro bono attorneys. We hosted a record-breaking winter webinar series, engaging more than 200 stakeholders across the region on topics like agritourism and hiring farm employees. We published new legal guides in our Resource Library, including over a dozen in Spanish. And we were thrilled to launch the Hub in New Hampshire, which means we are now operating in all the New England states.

Jim Gerritsen of Wood Prairie Family Farm offered this reflection on the Legal Food Hub’s work: “In New England, farmers enjoy a significant benefit because of the Legal Food Hub’s work to support local agriculture. The Hub offers pro bono legal services to family farmers looking to address a legal issue. Knowing the Legal Food Hub has our backs allows us to focus on the farming we love. Because of them we sleep better at night.”

In this uncertain world, we applaud the resilience of New England’s farmers, food entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations and look forward to supporting them in the years to come.