The city of Brockton, MA needs more healthy food stores. Digger Foods is on a mission to fill the gap and make locally grown, organic, and seasonal food available to more people in Brockton.
Digger Foods started in 2017 with a vision to sell local food to people in Greater Brockton with low incomes. Cathy Wirth, then Director of Agriculture for the Trustees of Reservations, launched the Trustees’ Mobile Farmers Market. She hired Philip Messier and Bonny Tsang so in 2022, Philip, Cathy, and Bonny formed Digger Foods to bring more of the bounty of Massachusetts farms to the people who needed the food in Brockton, Massachusetts.
Digger Foods provides food for people experiencing food insecurity. They deliver fruits and vegetables from nearby farms, at discounted prices. Here’s how they do it:
1 / Partner with local farmers.
Digger Foods purchases high-quality, local produce from farms and sells it at discounted costs to Brockton residents.
2 / Deliver to housing projects in Brockton and host pop-up farmer’s markets.
Digger Foods delivers consistently, every week. In addition, Digger Foods has four retail markets during the growing season, April-November.
3 / Attract volunteers and donors.
Digger Foods receives donations from partners to buy healthy foods at lower prices so they can sell the food at or below the cost.
Through our Massachusetts Food Trust Program, a LEAF and Mass Dept of Agricultural Resources program, we’re proud to help fund Digger Foods. This has allowed Digger Foods to purchase a new vehicle and deliver the foods from their mobile market.
Digger Foods has grown every year since it started in 2017. And with their growth people in Brockton who couldn’t afford to buy fresh foods are enjoying more fruits and vegetables grown by their nearby farmers.