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EBC Merit Award for Leadership by a Non-Profit Organization
Award Receipt: Spoonfuls
The EBC Merit Award for Leadership by a Non-Profit Organization is awarded to Spoonfuls, New England’s largest food recovery organization by pounds recovered and towns and people reached through its deliveries. Through partnerships with food retailers and community-based organizations, Spoonfuls recovers more than 5.5 million pounds of food annually, reaching over 370,000 people facing food insecurity across Massachusetts each year.
Apart from its core food recovery programming, Spoonfuls is a thought leader at the intersection of food waste, food insecurity, and climate. Its team has lent perspective around the City of Boston’s Office of Food Justice Food Recovery Assessment and the creation of the Greater Boston Collaborative Food Access Hub. Spoonfuls participates actively in the Boston Food Access Council, the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative’s Food Waste Reduction Network, the MetroWest Food Collaborative, and the Zero Food Waste Coalition, among others, advocating tirelessly, for greater awareness of the benefits of food recovery as a tool for tackling wasted food and feeding people.
Founded in 2010 by Ashley Stanley, today the organization’s footprint spans Greater Boston, MetroWest, Worcester County, and Hampden County, with a strategic plan to scale to additional communities in Massachusetts and beyond in the coming years.
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EBC Merit Award for Leadership by a Non-Profit Organization
Award Project: Great Marsh Restoration Project
Award Recipients:
- The Trustees of Reservations
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Northeast Wetland Restoration
- Mass Audubon
- Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
- Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control and Wetlands Management District
- Greenbelt, Essex County’s Land Trust
- University of New Hampshire
- Rimmer Environmental Consulting LLC
- Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership
- MA Division of Ecological Restoration
The EBC Merit Award for Leadership by a Non-Profit Organization is awarded to The Trustees of Reservations and their partner, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, for their work to restore the Great Marsh, New England’s largest salt marsh.
At 16,000 acres, the Great Marsh provides habitat, stores carbon, provides world-class birding, and protects communities from storms and flooding. A legacy of agricultural embankments and ditching has left the marsh vulnerable to sea level rise. Without restoration, the Great Marsh is projected to convert to low marsh before 2070 and tidal flats before 2100. The Trustees and the USFWS, along with the project team, piloted an innovative yet simple approach to restore tidal hydrology allowing the marsh to heal itself and build in elevation naturally. Using runnels to drain impounded water and saltmarsh hay to trap sediment in ditches, the project has resulted in the completed restoration of 215 acres and paved the way for restoration of an additional 8,000 acres currently in process!
The Great Marsh Restoration Project is leading the way through collaboration with marsh owners and permitting agencies to restore this nationally significant natural resource using innovative, nature-based techniques.
Presenting the Award:
Stephanie Cooper, Undersecretary for Environment
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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