Legal Food Hub year in review

By supporting those who grow, produce, and sell our local food, we're helping to foster a sustainable, resilient, and just food system. And a healthy and thriving local food system means a healthy environment, climate, and economy for all New Englanders.

Our focus

The Legal Food Hub provides pro bono legal assistance by matching qualified attorneys in our network with…
Farmers
Food Entrepreneurs

& the Organizations that Support Them

Our Work

Over the last year, 80 attorneys donated more than 1,000 hours of time to help farmers, food businesses, and organizations navigate legal issues. In addition to matching participants with volunteer attorneys, we expanded our educational outreach, most recently creating free guides to help small farmers and food businesses understand legal essentials that could affect their operations. Here are just a few highlights of our work in 2019. Hover over each photo, then click to read more.
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Another Milestone year

Five years, five states, and 460 cases placed – and we're still growing.

A surprising statistic prompted CLF to launch the Legal Food Hub five years ago. In a survey, only 10 percent of farmers reported using legal services, compared with nearly 70 percent of other small businesses.

We launched the Hub to give the movers and shakers in our local food system – our small farmers, startup food businesses, and local nonprofits – access to legal services to lower the barrier to entry and help sustain and grow farm and food businesses in New England.

As we celebrate five years of this work, we’re happy to report that the Hub’s services are making a difference to the 460 participants we’ve served. A recent survey revealed that most of our participants wouldn't have access to legal services if not for our program.

Most respondents agreed that the help they received through the Legal Food Hub freed up time and money for their business. This suggests that pro bono legal assistance helped break down critical barriers to their success. Our survey also showed that a majority of respondents believe they would not have been able to achieve the same results without the Legal Food Hub.

The evidence is clear: Five years in, we’ve made an impact for the better – which spurs us to keep working for a more sustainable, just food system in New England.

OUR HAPPY CLIENTS
FIRMS in our network in four states
NEW ENGLAND STATES SERVED BY LEGAL FOOD HUB
CASES placed since June 2014
MILLION dollars leveraged since 2014

Latest News

We're launching a new Hub and supporting New England's farmers through challenging times.

distinguished service awards

The Legal Food Hub Team

Amy Laura Cahn
Amy Laura Cahn
Interim Vice President, Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice
Amy Laura Cahn is Interim Director of the Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice Program. Amy Laura joined CLF after six years advocating on environmental, land, and food justice at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia.
Sara Dewey
Sara Dewey
Director of Farm & Food Initiative
Sara Dewey is director of CLF’s Farm and Food Initiative. Sara has worked on environmental, agricultural, and energy issues as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate and as policy director of an environmental governance initiative at Yale University.
Phelps Turner
Phelps Turner
Senior Attorney
Phelps Turner is a Senior Attorney for CLF Maine, where he works in the Clean Energy & Climate Change and Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice programs. Before joining CLF, Phelps was an environmental litigation associate at Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen in Boston.
Elena Mihaly
Elena Mihaly
Senior Attorney
Elena Mihaly is a Senior Attorney for CLF Vermont. Early in her tenure, she helped to launch the Legal Food Hub. Today, she focuses on developing and implementing solutions to protect public health, enhance community climate preparedness, and ensure all communities have equal access to a clean and healthy environment.
Mary Rose Scozzafava, Esq.
Mary Rose Scozzafava, Esq.
Senior Fellow
Mary Rose Scozzafava, Esq., is a former partner from Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr interested in sustainable agriculture and local food systems. Currently, she is board memb er and clerk of LexFarm, an organically certified community farm in Lexington, MA.
Mary Lovell Egan
Mary Lovell Egan
Regional Coordinator
Mary Lovell Egan is the Regional Coordinator for the Legal Food Hub. She previously worked at Harvard Business School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Mary brings great experience as a farm team member and food entrepreneur to her work with the Hub.