holyoke
Community Cookbook Project
Local
Location: Holyoke, MA
Dates: 2023 - 2025
Partners: City of Holyoke, Mass In Motion, Linnean Solutions, Nueva Esperanza, Enlace de Familias, and Holyoke Food Economy Coalition
Funding: Massachusetts MVP Action Grant
Role: Project Co-Lead
Note: Holly co-led this project while working at Linnean Solutions from 10/2023 - 8/2025 and then as an independent consultant from 9/2025 - 12/2025.
Combining recipes, art, stories, cooking classes, celebrations, and community food resources in a recipe for food justice.
The Holyoke Community Cookbook Project supported a vision towards greater community resilience, health equity, and food justice through the creation of a community cookbook. The cookbook is filled with family recipes from the Holyoke community, art and stories about culture and community, and guidance on local food resources and food initiatives.
In the process of creating the cookbook, residents and organizations came together for community cooking classes, trips to the farmers’ market, food demonstrations, and food access initiatives and celebrations. Together, the project team, community partners, and community members shared insights on how to use the Healthy Incentive Program (HIP) benefits, explored rising food costs and the impacts on families, discussed what it will take to create equitable access to food in Holyoke, told stories, tasted recipes, and celebrated the way food continues to bring us together.
See more on the Holyoke Community Cookbook project here.
