Worcester, MASS. - The Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts is growing several different types of mushrooms out of their office in downtown Worcester.

“I’d probably eat mushrooms 365 days a year if I could,” said Lynn Khamphavong, the coalition’s manager of community engagement. 

Since September, they’ve grown and harvested more than 800 pounds of mushrooms thanks to a grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. They transformed their building’s storage room into a mushroom growing farm.

“We had to paint the whole room in mildew resistant paint and then drill, I think, three holes in this very solid building to bring fresh air in and to bring air out,” said executive director Tuyet Tran. 

Mushrooms need a high humidity, medium temperature environment to thrive, growing about 50% in size every 24 hours.

Clark University grad student Amanda Dye makes sure the mushrooms are well taken care of.

“It’s definitely a labor of love,” Dye said. “Checking on them every day making sure you have the best mushrooms possible.”

The mushrooms are plucked from the tent and used for cooking around the office and about half are donated to local seniors centers, shelters and churches to help fight food insecurity across the city.

“How do we bring fresh fruits and vegetables into a community really to address not only food insecurity, but how do we have a long-term impact on people’s health in a positive way,” Tran said. 

The coalitions said mushrooms are packed with vitamins and nutrients and whether you consider them a vegetable or fungi, you can easily put them in any recipe. 

“Any tomato soup. Any broccoli soup. Chicken noodle soup,” Khamphavong said. “You can chop them up and put them in there. You can stir fry them, add a little onion, a little garlic and they’re really good.”

Dye said they hope to offer educational workshops about their mushroom growing operation in the near future.