A Shared Space for Collective Making and Community Life
For more than 35 years, Nancy Jamison has carried a simple but powerful belief:
Good food should feed people, not go to waste.
Fair Foods began in 1988 when Nancy saw a truckload of perfectly good carrots headed for the dump and asked a question that would shape decades of community impact:
Why is this food being thrown away when families need it?
That question became a mission.
With determination, creativity, and the support of countless volunteers and community partners, Nancy built one of Greater Boston’s earliest large-scale produce rescue and affordable food distribution networks — long before “food rescue” became a national movement.
Over the decades, Fair Foods helped distribute millions of pounds of fresh produce through neighborhood-based sites across Greater Boston, creating a model rooted in dignity, affordability, environmental responsibility, and community trust.
Now, as Nancy prepares for retirement and a new chapter of life and creative pursuits, she is working closely with Maverick Landing Community Services (MLCS) to help ensure that the work she built continues and evolves for the next generation.
This transition builds on a relationship formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when MLCS and Fair Foods worked together to help keep food moving across East Boston and other neighborhoods during a time of extraordinary need.
“We saw something powerful emerge through the Triennial and our collaboration with ñ press… participation was consistent and meaningful. East Boston Community Studio allows that practice to remain free, open, and ongoing, rooted here and accessible to the whole community.”
- Rita Lara, MLCS Executive Director
Join Us in Building the Next Chapter
MLCS invites community members, partners, donors, volunteers, and advocates to help strengthen this next generation of community food access infrastructure across Greater Boston.
Together, we can:
rescue fresh food before it goes to waste,
expand affordable produce access,
strengthen neighborhood health,
and build lasting pathways toward economic stability and opportunity.
Donate. Volunteer. Partner. Advocate.
The work continues.
Today, MLCS is honored to support the continuation and strengthening of the Fair Foods network across more than 30 community distribution sites serving neighborhoods including East Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Fenway, and beyond.
Under the leadership of Executive Director Rita Lara, MLCS is expanding this work as part of a broader vision for community health, economic mobility, and neighborhood resilience.
As part of this next chapter, MLCS is also launching the Grab & Go Produce Market and Economic Mobility Hub in East Boston — an innovative neighborhood model that combines affordable rescued produce with workforce development support, housing stabilization services, benefits navigation, referrals, and pathways to opportunity.
Because this work has never been only about food.
Every bag of produce represents:
healthier families,
less food waste,
stronger neighborhoods,
and opportunities to connect residents with the resources they need to thrive.
This transition is not about replacing a legacy. It is about preserving and carrying forward decades of community-rooted work while building the infrastructure needed for the future.
Nancy Jamison will continue supporting the transition in an advisory role, helping transfer the knowledge, relationships, and values that have defined Fair Foods for generations.
We are deeply grateful for her vision, persistence, and lifelong commitment to ensuring that fresh food reaches the communities that need it most.
Visit the Studio!
East Boston Community Studio hosts regular Saturday Open Studio hours.
Community members are invited to drop in, make work, learn alongside others, or simply spend time in a shared creative space.
The studio centers collective creativity as a tool for connection, expression, and belonging, not as a program to complete or a skill to master.
Open Studio: Saturdays, 2:00–6:00 PM
Location: Maverick Landing Community Services, 31 Liverpool Street, East Boston
Cost: Free and open to the public
Community members are welcome to stop by, meet artists, and participate at their own pace.
ñ press hosts various events throughout the year, check HERE to learn about what we’re up to or write us HERE if you’d like to get in touch.
