Mission & Values
Our Mission
The Needham Community Farm is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to deepen our community's connection to nature, our food system, and each other. We focus on three intertwined program areas:
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Providing farm-based educational opportunities for learning about sustainable growing and nutrition.
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Increasing access to healthy produce for those in our community who experience food insecurity.
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Building community through volunteerism
Our Work
We provide fresh, healthy, sustainably grown produce to the Needham Community Council Food Pantry, serving over 400 income-eligible families a month. Our Mobile Market distributes our produce at four Needham Housing Authority sites.
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We offer a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) distributed on Tuesdays and Fridays from June through October.
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We offer multi-generational educational opportunities to the community, including our popular gardening classes. Scholarships are available for income-eligible individuals or families.
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We welcome volunteers throughout the growing season to help with all aspects of the work on our farm.
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NEW in 2023! Community Garden Beds for lease.
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We grow at two sites - our primary site off Pine St., and our pilot site in front of the Newman Elementary School.
Our Statement On Racial Inequality
We stand in full solidarity with all who are fighting for a more equitable and just society. As an organization, we are committed to listening carefully to those affected, confronting our own biases, teaching our friends and family how to understand and accept the true impact of racism, and taking action that speaks to each of us as individuals and as a farm community. We need to allow ourselves to be necessarily uncomfortable as we all work to understand both our role in perpetuating inequality and how we can, as allies, end racial and economic inequalities.
Our farm continues to work to address the consequences of structural inequality as it results in food insecurity in MetroWest. We know we are only playing a small part, but we want to do more to assist all people. In general, the agricultural system in America is troubled and exploitive of both resources and people, especially people of color. Further, racism is rarely identified as the cause of inordinately high rates of hunger, food insecurity, pesticide poisoning, and diet-related disease among people of color.
The Farm intends to consider specific actions to advance the goals of racial justice and social equality. We invite you to join us in the Farm’s commitment to advance our nation’s understanding of systemic racism and economic inequities through listening, self reflection and taking action in order to, paraphrasing the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice. Please reach out to us to share concerns, resources, ideas and thoughts about how we individually and collectively can take such actions.
Our Land Statement
The Needham Community Farm (“The Farm”) respectfully acknowledges that it grows on the traditional, unceded territory of the Pawtucket, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett) Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), Nipmuc and Pokanoket as well as all others who occupied this land before them. The Farm and all who now respectfully tend this land offer our gratitude to the Indigenous People for their care for and continuous teachings about this land, our Earth, and our relation to all peoples. May we honor these Indigenous Peoples and their teachings in all that we do on the Farm.
Additionally, the Farm is committed to continuing to learn and grow, and as such this recognition is a starting point that will evolve over time.