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The Food Project Executive Director
Margaret Williams
By CHRISTINE LIU
del.ico.us
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Founded in 1991, The Food Project is the first organization of its kind (and still the largest) in the nation, combining youth development, food and social justice. Margaret Williams, who came onboard seven months ago as executive director, neatly sums it up as "working to help develop youth leaders to grow and provide and advocate for healthy food for all Bostonians." With teens coaxing suburban soil and urban micro-farms—up to two acres of vacant lots that have been reclaimed for farmland—The Food Project grows "enough food to feed over 2,000 people a year, and 40 percent of what is grown is given away to food relief, pantries and shelters." The mission richly benefits not only individual bellies, but entire communities.
Williams has been a force of social change in Boston since 1987. In 1995, she helped launch "ReadBoston," a youth literacy campaign. Williams was also involved in legalizing gay marriage, as interim executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in 2004. "I became interested in sustainable agriculture because that is the next wave of social justice issues," Williams explains. "It's important now in this country. Food prices are going up like crazy, and it's becoming unequal distribution between the haves and have-nots."
Some of the more recent initiatives Williams has spearheaded include promoting food stamp transactions at farmers markets, advocating for a bill to establish the Massachusetts Food Policy Council and pioneering a pilot program (which other cities are modeling) subsidizing farmers on a local level and offering affordable fresh food to low-income market-goers.
The Food Project also works directly with its urban neighbors, establishing residential kitchen gardens ("It's a way of self-empowering people to grow their own food") and delivering farm produce directly to low-income elderly housing developments. Williams recalls fondly one woman who, after buying collard greens, promptly cooked them with sausage (like she did on the Cape Verdean islands) and brought the dish downstairs to share it with the delivery crew. "She brought it right down in her slippers," Williams says, laughing.
"I'm working with teens on something that is real work for real people, and we can see the results of what we do every day," says Williams on her gratifying work. "I move from T-shirt to silk every day, depending where I am and what I'm doing—either helping weed a garden or raising money for the foundation." She adds, fittingly so, "It's like being a food superhero."
[The Food Project, 555 Dudley St., Dorchester. 617.442.1322. 10 Lewis St., Lincoln. 781.259.8621. 120 Munroe St., Lynn. 781.346.6726. thefoodproject.org]
