In Lincoln, the community rallies around a farmer facing personal loss and the end of federal funding

Boston Globe

09-07-2025

He also faces another crisis.
Last year, as with every year since it launched, the farm's biggest buyer was the
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Jennifer Hashley, director of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, a program of Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Mohammed Hannan view young organic greens last month. The plants were being grown in a high tunnel, one of two on the property at Hannan Healthy Foods in Lincoln.
MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
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Established in 2005, the Food Hub aggregates and distributes vegetables grown by more than 35 beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers in the Boston region. It is an initiative of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, which was founded in 1998 to integrate recent immigrants and refugees with farming backgrounds into Massachusetts agriculture.
New Entry director Jennifer Hashley explained that, thanks to four years of unprecedented support prior to the cuts, her organization was just beginning to 'transform how we do work and how we do agriculture and distribute food and get it to people that need it the most,' especially beginning, historically underserved and socially disadvantaged farmers. In addition to the food grant programs, in 2025, the Trump administration halted the Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership, land-purchase grants, and multiple initiatives linked to the 2018 Farm Bill. This sudden termination of multiple streams of support disrupted many long-planned efforts and, in some cases, left farmers holding the bill for purchases they had already made based on awards that were withdrawn.
Farm garlic at Hannan Healthy Foods in Lincoln.
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It's no coincidence that Hannan is the steward of a successful farm. He's always had close ties to agriculture. He grew up on his family's organic farm in Bangladesh, which was both a source of food and income. Hannan went on to earn a master's degree in wildlife biology, studying the country's ecologically critical coastal areas. In 2014, he gave up an opportunity to accept a Duke fellowship when his wife received a
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Afsheen Hannan, the fifth-grade daughter of Mohammed Hannan, has an interest in growing and selling flowers.
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He eked out a living at multiple minimum-wage jobs — Walgreens, Indian restaurants, and MIT facilities — before landing work in biotech, then as a lab manager at MIT. During the lean years, he yearned for the affordable organic food that was so accessible in Bangladesh. He wondered, 'How can I change my situation? How can I grow food here?' His aspirations grew: 'I need to get access to healthy produce. I realized that it is not only me. There are thousands of people here. They also do not have access.' This realization shaped his mission: 'Getting healthy food should be a fundamental human right. No matter whether you are poor or you are rich, everybody should have access to proper, healthy food.'
Unsure about whether working a full-time job while running a farm would be feasible, Hannan spent the summer of 2017 volunteering mornings, nights, and weekends at
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Volunteers sort organic greens at Hannan Healthy Foods farm stand in Lincoln.
MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
The weeds were chest-high on the 2.5-acre barren plot, and there was no potable water for washing produce. 'When I went to see the plot with my kids and my wife, they were super scared. They were saying, Oh my God, what are you doing?! I was also not sure how to make this into a farm; there was literally nothing, [just] a pond [to] irrigate the farm — that's it, that was the only thing I had.' Hannan didn't have a car, so driving to the new plot he had leased from the town would be difficult. Yet, 'Instead of getting discouraged, I was looking at the opportunities. I came up with a plan: I'll grow veggies that do not need washing: bottle and bitter gourds, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers.' As he expanded, Hannan connected with the Lincoln community through an online forum. There, he met Tom Flint, an 11th-generation Lincoln farmer. Flint introduced him to Lincoln Land Conservation Trust trustee Jim Henderson, who let Hannan use his backyard sink and cure garlic in his barn. These were the first of many new friends who welcomed him to Lincoln.
Mohammed Hannan of Hannan Healthy Foods farm stand in Lincoln inside the CSA shed where members of the program pick up presorted organic greens.
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In 2021, Hannan expanded and leased a second 7.5-acre plot, using savings to buy a greenhouse, and obtained two high tunnels with funds from the
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A member of the CSA program enters the shed where bags of presorted greens are packaged in reusable bags for pickup.
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For Hannan, giving back is a core value. Even when he operates at a loss, he donates produce to local food banks. He launched a food donation initiative with Cambridgeport Public School, where his daughter attends, providing produce for its pay-what-you-can farm stand fund-raiser — helping fifth-graders attend the Farm School overnight camp — and donates 10 percent of his CSA proceeds and 15 percent of sauce sales to support the school — many students and parents also volunteer at the farm (his second CSA pickup is in Cambridge).
CSA members Andrew Robinson and Hannah Frankel of East Boston walk out of a shed with bags of presorted organic greens. At right is stand owner Mohammed Hannan.
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Most recently, Hannan's community rallied to support him when his wife died in March, putting in extra hours to lessen his load on the farm. This help, he said, has 'meant a lot to me.'
Looking ahead, despite the termination of the food grant programs, the Food Hub will still buy produce from its 38 farmers, but, according to Hashley, 'it will be significantly less than [we] would have … were those funds in place.' She and her purchasing partners are urgently searching for ways to make up the difference.
Organic greens are displayed at the farm stand at Hannan Healthy Foods in Lincoln.
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She's frustrated by the loss of momentum — not only in direct support for small farmers, but also in building infrastructure, from production to distribution and transportation. 'Finally, the government was stepping up in the middle, saying, we're going to use our purchasing power to bridge this transition to help both farmers and people that we need to help feed. It was beautiful.'
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Despite his family's grief and the precarious financial landscape, Mohammed Hannan brims with excitement when he speaks about his farm. 'If you walk in the tomato fields, you feel the smell of the tomato plants. This is wonderful.' He plans to plant fruit trees in undeveloped fields and transform the farm into a fully integrated, certified organic system with a closed-loop composting operation. Eventually, he hopes to find a successor.
Presorted greens are packaged in reusable bags for pickup at Hannan Healthy Foods farm stand in Lincoln.
MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Hannan balances his full-time job and family responsibilities with 50 hours a week in his fields. The Trump administration's grant cancellations have disrupted his plans: 'My goal was to ramp up every season to see if I can do farming full time.' He asks, 'How can I go to the next step? How can I make a living from farming?' He's at a loss as to how to solve the problem of diminished sales. 'We can see if I can find more wholesalers. Or if we can sell more through the farm stand here.' Given his home and work responsibilities, he says, 'I have limited capacity.'
Fortunately, Hannan's MIT job subsidizes his farm, and his volunteer community provides supplemental support. However, for many other small farmers affected by funding cuts, the consequences will be existential. As Hannan puts it: 'Small farmers like me … will definitely choose other options.'
Visit the Hannan Healthy Food farm stand Saturdays and Sundays through October, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 270 South Great Road, Lincoln.
Jocelyn Ruggiero can be reached at jocelyn@jocelynruggiero.
Mohammed Hannan at the entrance to a high tunnel at Hannan Healthy Foods farm in Lincoln.
MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE