Farm to Restaurant Study

The Center for Family, Work & Community is partnering with the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production in a Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture grant project that will identify opportunities for immigrants to participate in restaurant-supported agriculture. This project will carry out a marketing study to identify strategies for bringing together ethnic restaurateurs in the Lowell area with immigrant and other farmers in the region who participate in a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) New Entry Sustainable Farming Program.

The project will assess the viability of addressing the unmet needs of the many ethnic restaurants in Lowell to obtain their specialty food produce locally, in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost. A particular emphasis is being placed on sustainability by incorporating an emphasis on the nutrient cycle in the planned initiative and marketing study. The project intends to identify ways the university, through its strong emphasis on environmental issues, could better meet the economic development needs of the Merrimack Valley region.

For more information about the Farm to Restaurant Marketing Study contact David Turcotte.