Senator Eldridge Secures $100,000 in FY24 Budget for World Farmers

Funding helps World Farmers to provide capacity-building support for individual farming enterprises

BOSTON –  State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Marlborough) announced that he secured $100,000 in the FY24 Budget for World Farmers. World Farmers is a Lancaster-based organization that supports small farmers in sustainable agricultural production and successful marketing practices.

On July 31, the Legislature enacted a $56.2 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), reconciling differences between the versions of the budget passed by the House of Representatives and Senate and earlier this year. Having passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, the FY24 budget now moves to the Governor’s desk for her consideration.  

World Farmers provides mentoring, training and hands-on assistance to help farmers build the capacity needed to operate their own individual farming enterprises. It operates a wide range of programs, including the Flats Mentor Farm, a 70-acre river bottom parcel of land providing farmers with farming infrastructure and necessary training. The Flats Mentor Farm, facilitates for farmers stronger opportunities to learn advanced accounting, marketing and business management skills. Two such opportunities are the mentorship program – which offers personalized assistance to farmers with entrepreneurial goals, from new arrivals to established operators – and the community kitchen, an exciting space that taps into value-added production and commercial processing. 

Today, more than 1,200 farmers have had plots at Flats Mentor Farm, and many of them went on to develop their own operations across the country. Programs at World Farmers enable people with different ethnic backgrounds, women, refugees, and immigrants to establish their own enterprises. 

“World Farmers plays an important role in our diverse communities. It provides critical services for farmers, helps immigrants realize their American dream, and quite literally provides the ‘land of opportunity,’” said Senator Eldridge. “I thank my fellow colleagues and partners at World Farmers for securing this important earmark.”

 For more information about the FY24 budget, click here.

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