WestSide Farm Project is preparing its fourth year of community gardening in Pittsfield's Westside neighborhood. In 2008, WestSide Farm Project began as a grassroots effort to transform neighborhood vacant lots into productive green space for community interaction centered on organic food production. Thom Pecoraro, a local property owner and Founding Director, obtained a license to use a vacant lot in the Westside neighborhood from the City of Pittsfield to work with volunteers to start a small, mid-season garden. In 2009, over 500 pounds of vegetables were grown in this garden and donated to community food sites. Last year, WestSide Farm Project expanded its cultivated space to three plots in the neighborhood - totaling over 9,000 square feet. Over 3,000 pounds of vegetables, over six times the previous year's production, were grown in the three gardens. The produce went to volunteers who worked in the gardens and to the following food banks and community food sites: First United Methodist Church, Christian Center, St. Stephens, First Baptist Church, First Congregational, Lenox United Methodist Church, Barton’s Crossing, WIC, Salvation Army, and Lanesboro VFW. The original mission of WestSide Farm Project was: i. Educate communities on the benefits of organic food production and its role in sustainability. ii. Create community hubs for environmental education and related learning activities. iii. Collaborate with after-school and summer programs at schools' vegetable gardens. However, due to budgetary cutbacks resulting in the loss of contract farmer services, the project has been scaled down to eliminate the educational component of operations. This season, the garden will be a traditional community garden that provides individual community members space to tend their own gardens. Roughly one half of the lot will continue to be used to grow produce for food banks and community food sites.