2021 Boston Local Food Festival Recap
By Greg Nicaise, Local Food Program Manager
Photo credit: Fred Moses
A crisp apple crunch. The crack of an oyster husk. Sizzling steam with a spiced aroma. Nearly 40,000 people finding their newest go-to taste rave. These are just a few of my favorite things.
On September 19th, the hungry, the curious, and the enthusiasts came together in the heart of Boston on the Rose Kennedy Greenway for the 11th Annual Boston Local Food Festival. With a cool sun overhead, Boston celebrated almost 60 food growers and creators who bring character and freshness to New England’s thriving food culture. By mid-day, visitors poured into the Greenway, packing the pathways, and forming a collective spectacle of human appetite and spirit. The festival featured the “New England Village”, filled with exhibitions and workshops to connect visitors to the importance of supporting locally-sourced food and businesses. At the Family Fun Zone, children showed their Boston pride, boasting face-painting and bringing color to the bay’s treasures with shell painting. And as visitors leisurely explored their way through Greenway, the festival presented a cornucopia of hidden delights, as budding entrepreneurs showcased their culinary inspirations.
To the lucky ones who were able to join us at this year’s festival: we hope you were able to take a moment to revel in the power food has to bring together diverse groups of people over a shared experience. If you were not able to make it this year, we - at The Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts (SBN) - look forward to seeing you there next September. The Boston Local Food Festival is an annual event in it’s 11th year (having taken a break in 2020 due to COVID-19), and is quickly becoming a Boston tradition as one of the Greenway’s largest festivals. With the ultimate goal of providing access to Healthy Food for All, SBN hosts the festival to grow support for local food. With this initiative, and many others, we aim to reach our “50 by ‘60” goal of having at least 50% of all food consumed in New England be sourced locally in New England by 2060. SBN also commits to ambitious sustainability goals around zero-waste and electricity by ensuring 90% of festival waste is either recycled or composted and by off-setting all electricity used at the event.
We thank our sponsors for their support and collaboration in making the 11th Annual Boston Local Food Festival the biggest and best local food festival in Boston! AllWays Health Partners, Cabot Creamery, Food Solutions New England, Natural Awakenings Magazine, Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Little Leaf Farms, Progressive Investors Network, Mable, Yelp, Clarke Kitchen, Ameriprise, and Edible Boston.