In this edition of the Food Justice newsletter, we unite through sofrito-making and storytelling.

Fall is here, the leaves are changing, and students are back in school.

Meanwhile, community members are coming together to address food insecurity and build connections through activities like sofrito-making and storytelling. Through the Growing Garden Program, a collaboration between NOFA/Mass and Rachel’s Table, participants learn valuable gardening, soil health, and cooking skills while strengthening community bonds by celebrating shared cultural food traditions.

NOFA/Mass + Rachel’s Table

For the past two years, NOFA/Mass and Rachel’s Table have partnered to create the Growing Garden Program, a project to improve food security. Rachel’s Table, a program of the Jewish Community Center, coordinates gleaning services, collecting surplus produce from local farmers and distributing it to agencies across Western Massachusetts.

The Growing Garden Program extends this effort by pairing garden liaisons with agencies in Hampden County to help families start community gardens. Gardeners, often clients or members of these agencies, participate in gardening classes, while NOFA/Mass provides expertise in soil health and food preservation.

Marylis Correa—a resident of Tapley Court Apartments—is leading a sofrito-making workshop.

Chef Mari 

Throughout the growing season, workshops and gatherings are held to support gardeners with skills in soil health, gardening techniques, cooking, nutrition, and food preservation.

In August, Marylis Correa, a resident of Tapley Court Apartments, hosted an interactive workshop on making homemade sofrito. She highlighted how the ingredients taste great together and thrive when grown together. Known as “Chef Mari” to the youth, she guided two mothers from Christina House and their families through chopping vegetables and preparing the recipe while sharing touching stories of learning to cook with her grandmother in Puerto Rico and passing those traditions to her daughter.

NOFA/Mass staff also demonstrated the benefits of companion planting and how designing garden plots around favorite recipes, like sofrito, promotes plant diversity and soil health. The next workshop in the series will focus on Fall Soil Health at another Rachel’s Table Growing Garden site.

Chef Mari and others blend ingredients to make the sofrito.

For more information on the Growing Gardens Program from Rachel’s table, please visit them at feedwma.org.

To learn more about the Food Access Program, visit the NOFA/Mass Food Access website.

We need volunteers to help grow food, work with kids, and fight against food insecurity.

Click the volunteer button and email Sister Anna, saying, “I want to volunteer.”