On Thursday, October 5, the Marion Institute hosted the first annual Boogie at the Bog fundraising event to benefit Frogfoot Farm: Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, a new farm-to-food relief program to fight hunger and poor nutrition across Southeastern MA. With plans to launch in 2024, Frogfoot Farm will grow, farm and harvest food for individuals and families experiencing hunger – or food insecurity as it is also called – across Southeastern MA (Bristol, Plymouth and Norfolk counties.)
Food insecurity is defined as not knowing where your next meal is coming from – a very textbook definition. What does this look like? In the United States, and our region is no different, it looks caregivers skipping meals so that their children have enough food to eat, kids who are overweight because their families don’t have the means to purchase more costly fresh produce and so must instead rely on inexpensive, highly processed foods.
Hunger is a hidden and persistent issue for too many across Southeastern MA. As outlined in The Marion Institute’s Food System Assessment report, 1 in 3 consumers surveyed said they often or sometimes ran out of food before there was money to buy more. This maps to statewide data reporting the same statistic: 1 in 3 MA residents are food insecure, with children most impacted.
Food pantries constantly struggle to source more than the inexpensive, shelf-stable foods that the health-conscious among us try to avoid (i.e., canned foods, pastas, cereals.) While these foods fill bellies, they aren’t optimal for good health. Frogfoot
Farm’s goal is to change that by:
1. Growing fresh, culturally-relevant produce for food relief programs on six acres of land, and
2. Establishing a volunteer gleaning program to harvest food from area farms that would otherwise go to waste in the field.
Operations at Frogfoot Farm will turn two critical food system gaps in the region – access to fresh produce in food pantries and food waste – into one solution, in one location.
Frogfoot Farm is surrounded by bogs at the Wareham/Plymouth line, and this unique event kicked off with a cocktail hour in a bog of floating cranberries and featured an assortment of locally sourced foods for guests to enjoy. This will be an annual event. To learn more or get involved, visit www.MarionInstitute.org.