UPDATE as of 12/24, please read: URGENT CALL TO ACTION 

Greetings from the farm!

We are deep in preparations so that we may welcome our community to Waltham Fields Community Farm this Saturday! We hope you will join our staff, WFCF's Board of Directors and the many community organizations participating alongside WFCF.

Farm Day is our largest public event with FREE admission and rides on Waltham's Tick Tock Trolley! We thank the City for the use of the trolley and we look forward to utilizing the trolley more in the future and reducing transportation barriers to visiting the farm for many in our community

On the eve of this special event, I wish to inform our community on recent developments regarding the 2022 land sale and conversations within City Council.

WFCF does not currently have a lease. All former tenants at the former UMass Feield Station are considered tenants-at-sufferance by the City of Waltham.

The City has not yet issued an RFP for the property leaving us without the opportunity to apply for a new lease agreement (our prior agreement with UMass ended on 3/1/22).

The lack of a lease agreement also presents WFCF with additional challenges.

This spring WFCF submitted a detailed application and was awarded $111,461 by the Baker-Polito Administration through the Food Security Infrastructure Grant program. 

“This round of grants from the Food Security Grant program will further expand on our efforts to provide greater access to locally harvested and produced food products,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “With higher numbers of people experiencing food insecurity, we continue to take significant strides in ensuring fresh, locally sourced food remains widely available to the residents of Massachusetts.”

The City of Waltham will not approve a building permit for WFCF without a lease.

Without the opportunity to submit a proposal for our continued tenancy, WFCF faces this additional obstacle which directly affects the development of our infrastructure and our ability to provide greater access to local food.

On September 19, the City Council invited the Mayor to the Committee Of The Whole meeting and conducted a vote to confirm which City Departments would be granted care, control and custody of the land and buildings at 240 Beaver Street. WFCF does not dispute the need for this aspect of the process. We recognize the Consolidated Public Works Dept. now has care custody and control of the land and the Building Maintenance Dept has CCC of the buildings. We are thankful to the staff of these departments, past and future, for their support during the transition.

I encourage our members to view the the Committee of the Whole meeting and learn more about the advancements and the challenges WFCF has been preparing itself to respond to. The related topic begins at minute 5:50.

The meeting introduced new concerns due to misinformation shared. WFCF and current non-profit tenants of the former UMass Field Station have conducted themselves in an actively engaged and respectful manner throughout this stressful and resource absorbing process. We were disturbed by comments made during the 9/19/22 meeting. They were counterproductive and demeaned WFCF’s accountability, specifically to the legal agreements which were refined annually with UMass.

Waltham residents, I hope you may take the opportunity to speak out at one of the City's upcoming Master Plan sessions (more info below) and share your priorities for sustainable agriculture, climate change, permanent open-space conservation as well as the land stewardship WFCF has provided at 240 Beaver Street. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at WFCF for Farm Day! Please ask your elected officials to join you at Farm Day so that they witness firsthand the benefits and resources WFCF provides for our local and surrounding communities.

We look forward to growth and a future which stabilizes WFCF’s ability to provide nourishment, access and a connection to local agriculture and the land from which food is sustainably grown.

~ Stacey Daley, WFCF Executive Director

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WFCF? Read 2022 highlights from our annual meeting here!