We take a grassroots approach to healthy food.

Since 2006, Island Grown Initiative has led an innovative, collaborative effort to increase local food production, reduce food waste, promote climate-friendly farming techniques, and expand access to healthy, affordable food throughout the Martha’s Vineyard community.

There are four key ingredients to ensuring opportunity on the Island – adequate housing, education, quality health care and food. Food is what we do. Island Grown Initiative is all about food. We grow, glean, cook, distribute, and provide free food for those who need assistance. We also teach Island children about food from its history and ties to our culture, to how to grow and prepare healthy meals.

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Our mission

Island Grown Initiative’s mission is to build a regenerative and equitable food system with the Martha’s Vineyard community.

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Act

Island Grown Initiative, founded in 2006 to invigorate and strengthen the local food system, is now a leader in the Martha’s Vineyard food equity movement.

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Farm

A dynamic, regenerative working farm is key to our mission to make abundant, healthy food available throughout the Island community and teach climate-friendly practices.

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Innovate

We develop creative, collaborative local programs and services that improve access to affordable, healthy food on Martha’s Vineyard, including:

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Advocate

Island Grown Initiative works with decision-makers and garners community support on critical food policy issues at the local, state, and national level, working with:

  • MV Food Equity Network

  • Island-Wide Organics Waste Management Committee

  • Mass. Buy Local Coalition

  • Mass. Farm-to-School Project

  • National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

  • Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources Advisory Board

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Educate

Island Grown Schools excels at hands-on, garden-based learning for students of all ages. This model farm-to-school program empowers a new generation to make healthy eating choices, learn how food is grown, and connect to local farms.

IGI is committed to social justice.

We believe that food has the power to be a great uniter. We are dedicated to using that power to build bridges between people in our community while creating a strong, equitable, and regenerative local food system.  

We work to ensure that our staff, Board, and programs—from education to food production to food distribution and access—welcome, elevate, and include Islanders from all backgrounds, income levels, and abilities on Martha’s Vineyard.  

Our approach to realizing this vision is ever-changing as we are committed to always listening and learning.

Land Acknowledgment

We offer our respect and acknowledgement that these lands are the ancestral and contemporary home of the Wampanoag people, and we are indebted to their millennia of responsible stewardship.