Waltham Patch: Waltham Fields Community Farms Future In Question & How To Help

By Jenna Fischer MAY 30th, 2018 — Waltham Fields Community Farm, the non profit that has a team of staff and volunteers growing and donating some 20 tons of food each year to people in need across the area, promoting programs for healthy relationships to food and being an overall cheery face at the Waltham Farmer’s Market, said the farm might be at risk of closing.

“At a time when our hearts should be as full as our abundant fields and Learning Garden, Waltham Fields Community Farm (incorporated as Community Farms Outreach, Inc.) is instead greatly apprehensive about the future of the Waltham Field Station at 240 Beaver Street,” the farm posted to its website.

The farm said it has learned that its landlord – University of Massachusetts – is considering closing the site, which complete with buildings and farmland has been the organization’s home base for the past 23 years.

Since 1995, the community farm has called the Beaver Street farm its home without a long-term lease or the security that comes with it, they said.

“We have dutifully renewed our agreement for land and office space with the University on a yearly basis as our requests for a long term lease were routinely denied,” they posted.

The lease technically expires on June 30, 2018 but has an automatic extension through December 31 so the farm does not believe it will impact anyone’s CSA shares or summer education programming this season.

But the farm is concerned.

“The University’s promise to clarify the future of our tenancy this past April has gone unfulfilled. It is our belief that the University is now considering a sale of the property to the City of Waltham. WFCF firmly believes that this farm land should not be taken for granted,” reads the post.

The farmland the Waltham Fields Community Farm has been steward with rich alluvial soils are fertile, prime, relatively rock-free, flat and abundantly yielding, according to the farm.

The University acquired the property by way of Cornelia Warren’s will at her passing in 1922. The site was her family’s dairy, hay, and vegetable operation. Upon her death the farm was divided into several parcels by the Trustees of her Estate. Since then, the UMass Field Station has held historical significance for gardeners, farmers, breeders and all realms of horticultural research. This area of Waltham was surrounded by farmland at the time of Cornelia’s death; now, WFCF occupies the last vestige of that rich heritage, with ball fields, athletic structures, houses and other development displacing the rest of what was formerly her rich, urban agricultural land.

“Waltham Fields Community Farm has stewarded this land proudly and thoughtfully for over twenty years. We have donated its bounty to people in need, and has used sustainable and organic practices at the forefront of our approach. We are doing that on soil with a foundational tilth and structure that is rare to find these days.” – Waltham Fields Community Farm.

Now the farm is asking the community to help them protect and preserve the agricultural land and its historical relevance by reaching out to the mayor, city councilors and telling them to keep it active.

The news comes as UMass is in turmoil following the recent surprise news that it would be acquiring Newton’s Mount Ida College. The decision raised concerns and prompted a vote of no-confidence for the university’s leadership.

File Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch

https://patch.com/massachusetts/waltham/waltham-community-farms-future-air-how-you-can-help