Pepperell Planning Board Presses Two Groups on $500,000 Food Hub Earmark

PEPPERELL — February 6, 2023 — Pepperell Planning Board hears competing $500,000 food hub plans, sets February 21 deadline for progress. The board convened remotely on February 6 and heard back-to-back presentations from the Fitzpatrick Collaborative and the Agricultural Commission, two groups with substantially different visions for how to deploy a state earmark secured by Senator John Kennedy for food infrastructure in the town. Fitzpatrick Collaborative President Craig Hansen, Treasurer Steve Temple, and Project Manager Steve Lurby outlined a $560,000 Phase 1 build-out for a four-station shared commercial kitchen at the Peter Fitzpatrick Community Center, including a $100,000 contingency and revenue projections at $19 per hour that Planning Board Chair Al Patno questioned for mathematical consistency with the four-station model. Agricultural Commission Co-Chair Cheryl Rosoff followed with a regional food hub concept — focused on farm aggregation, distribution, and lightly processed goods — that she said the Fitzpatrick building could not physically support, and described a Phase 2 study running through spring that would identify sites, validate farmer volume commitments, and produce a three-year business plan. Patno warned that Senator Kennedy had told the town directly he would redirect the earmark to another community if no credible combined proposal emerged, and the board voted to bring both groups back to the February 21 meeting for a progress check-in.