Southeast Asian Coalition grows mushrooms to boost elder food security in Worcester

Thu Yette Tran, director of the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Mass., told the Elder Affairs Commission that the nonprofit’s indoor mushroom urban farm has produced several hundred pounds of mushrooms a week and is intended to help food-insecure older residents.

Tran said the Coalition started the indoor farm seven months ago in a former printers’ building at 58 Portland Street and has grown oyster, shiitake and lion’s mane mushrooms to distribute to older adults and to sell to cover operating costs. “We have the potential of growing up to 900 pounds a week,” she said, adding that current output is “probably, like, a couple 100 pounds a week.”

The farm is one part of the Coalition’s broader food-security work, which earlier included distributing boxes of vegetables and eggs supplied by local farmers. Tran said each box fed a family of four and that, in recent months, the program has shifted toward indoor production after outside donations decreased. “Last several months, we gave away $9,000 worth of mushroom and made $5,000,” she said, and the nonprofit projects it will take about a year and a half to break even.

Tran described how the operation was built inside a storage area behind the building’s loading dock after the organization secured a health-foundation grant and the property owner agreed to modifications. She summarized the technical needs: “You have to have perfect air flow, you have to have perfect humidity, and the temperature has to be perfect.” Tran said the substrate is organic sawdust with no chemicals, that blocks fruit in about a week and a half to two weeks, and that dried mushrooms can keep for up to three years.

Tran said the Coalition uses spent blocks as a high-quality compost in community gardens and that it plans additional products and packaging to extend shelf life and revenue. She reported early sales leads from a public school and other buyers and said the group aims to secure contracts that would let it both cover costs and continue free distribution to seniors. “We’re trying to figure out how to also make sure that we grow correctly,” she said.

Commissioners and meeting attendees asked operational questions about substrates, readiness and sales; Tran said the group is experimenting with coffee grounds and other materials and conducts trials to find strains suited to indoor conditions. She also addressed public safety concerns about spores, noting media-driven questions and saying there have been “8 cases in the whole United States” linked to environmental spore exposure in the literature she cited. Tran characterized those reports as rare and reiterated the Coalition’s safety precautions.

The Coalition accepts orders through its website and at farmers markets; Tran said volunteers and older adult participants sometimes receive mushrooms for free when they help harvest. She left samples at the meeting for commissioners and attendees to see and said the organization will continue seeking grants and local contracts to expand production and distribution.