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 Year in review

This has been a year of resilience for farmers and food businesses in our region.

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.

FIRMS in our network across New England

NEW ENGLAND STATES SERVED BY THE LEGAL FOOD HUB

CASES placed since June 2014

MILLION dollars leveraged since 2014

We're now in every new england state

The Legal Food Hub launched in New Hampshire in 2021, rounding out our services across New England. We are thrilled to partner with exceptional organizations in the Granite State to serve farmers and food entrepreneurs there. The Hub now operates in every state in the region. Local farmers and food businesses are essential pieces of a healthy and thriving community. Too often, high fees and complicated legal issues are a barrier to entrepreneurs and farmers getting their businesses off the ground. New Hampshire’s communities, residents, and our climate benefit when these businesses prosper, and it’s time they are given the tools they need.

We’re grateful for the volunteer attorneys who have signed up to support this work. “Strengthening the sustainable local food system in New Hampshire is vital to the health and well-being of the Granite State,” said Amy Manzelli, an attorney at BCM Environmental & Land Law in Concord and a Legal Food Hub volunteer. “The legal community has a critical role to play in the food system and BCM Law looks forward to serving New Hampshire’s farmers through the Legal Food Hub.”
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