Our Mission

The mission of Nourishing the North Shore is to ensure equal access to healthy, local food to all members of the North Shore Communities in a manner that builds community, fosters connection, and promotes dignity and self-reliance.

Our History

NNS was established in 2015, by three North Shore residents, each with decade-long ties in the community: Ellie Davis, YWCA; Nancy Earls, Learning Enrichment Center; and Pam Palombo, Newburyport Public Health Dept. The three NNS co-founders recognized the immediate issue of hunger faced by many in our community and specifically the void of access to healthy foods. The seeds of NNS were sown with a mission to establish a long-term strategy to address community-based healthy food insecurity. Since its inception, NNS has grown from a small garden plot with one distribution site to a community-wide effort that works across 10 cities and towns.

Our Values

We believe that all community members, regardless of income or wealth, should be able to feed themselves and their family in a way that promotes health and dignity. We believe that there is an inextricable connection between the health of the land and the health of people and that we must act on a local level to rebuild and strengthen these connections.

We believe our role is to work hand-in-hand with local farms, hunger relief organizations, community members, and other partners to broaden access to healthy food for local people while creating new customers for local farms. We believe this work uniquely positions us to understand the challenges of each player and to help create connections, relationships, and policies that make the food system work better for all.

Our Team

Our Board

Our Annual Impact

We work with community members, farmers, and local non-profits to create reliable access to healthy food. We work to increase the accessibility of local produce and create accessible growing spaces for our community!