Island Grown Initiative announced last week that Sarah McKay, former board president, will be taking over as interim executive director for the next year.
Expanding operations at Island Grown Initiative’s Thimble Farm were a topic of concern among neighbors during a hearing at the Tisbury selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, when IGI president Sarah McKay appeared before the board to secure permits for four existing propane tanks.
The Island Grown Initiative has named Keith Wilda as its executive director as the growing nonprofit undergoes a reorganization this fall. IGI was founded in 2005 by Ali Berlow who was its first executive director.
The Mill Brook is one of the Vineyard’s great natural treasures, with its clear, unpolluted waters that run from the glacial boulder-strewn terminal moraine of the North Shore to the sandy outwash plain that rims the Tisbury Great Pond on the south shore.
In an effort to protect a rare and pristine groundwater resource, the Island Grown Initiative will buy the Dunkl family property off Old Farm Road in Chilmark, leaders at the nonprofit announced Wednesday.
The 23-acre property sits at the head of the Mill Brook watershed and abuts the Roth Woodlands and Waskosim’s Rock Reservation.
Sarah McKay, president of IGI, said protecting the water source struck home with the sustainability aspect of the nonprofit’s mission.
A vocal gathering of Vineyard farmers heard about plans for a campus-style educational agricultural center during a tour of the former Thimble Farm property this week.
Sponsored by the Island Grown Initiative, which bought the 40-acre farm in the center of the Island last year, the tour sparked a lively discussion among some 30 growers about how best to encourage growth and also ensure survival for the burgeoning network of small farms on the Island that operate with little or no subsidy. Opinion was far from unanimous.
Island Grown Initiative announced preliminary plans this week for a campus-style farm center at the former Thimble Farm Property, including a refurbished greenhouse, parcels of land for tenant farmers and a slaughterhouse facility.
At the farm network’s annual farmers’ dinner on Monday night, executive director Sarah McKay laid out the organization’s initial plans for the historic agricultural property.
The Island Grown Initiative, the nonprofit farm and sustainability network, announced an $800,000 capital campaign this week to build the Vineyard’s first U.S. Department of Agriculture permitted slaughterhouse.
In an interview with the Gazette this week, IGI president Sarah McKay and Island Grown Meat coordinator Richard Andre said the organization is considering two locations for a 3,500 square foot facility – Thimble Farm or behind the new barn at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society in West Tisbury.
