Urban AG Resource Center

Southside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

Welcome to the Urban Agriculture Resource Center! We hope it will serve as a virtual “toolshed” of information and inspiration as you set out to grow your own food in the city.

• The Urban Agriculture Movement – Why Grow Your Own Food?

• Gardening with Kids

• Growing Food Topics

• Organizing Your Neighbors

• Starting a Community Garden(PDF)

• Student resources for students looking to do a project with SCLT

• Urban farming support (funding opportunities, trainings, etc.)

• Better Health and Gardens (incorporating plant-based foods in your diet for healthy eating)

e State of Rhode Island’s Open Space Preservation Act, the was purchased and preserved by the Rhode Island Division of Agriculture. SCLT is managing the property for the State and restoring 35 of its acres to active farmland.

Just 8 miles from our south Providence office, Urban Edge Farm is an ideal site for growing produce, educating new farmers and the public. Urban Edge Farm is a model farm demonstrating environmentally sound land stewardship and farming practices.

The farm hosts new farmers who collaboratively manage the farm’s operation and maintenance.  The farm also offers opportunities for volunteers to work alongside the farmers and hosts farm-related public events. The food grown by farmers at Urban Edge Farm feeds Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shareholders, Farmers’ Market customers, and diners at local restaurants, soup kitchens and food pantries.

Urban Edge Farm

Southside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

For 30 years Southside Community Land Trust has supported urban food producers. We currently manage 16 community gardens in South Providence and provide resources and support to over 700 food gardeners through our Community Growers Network.

Urban Edge Farm is a 50-acre farm in Cranston where seven new farmers grow. On Urban Edge Farm, Southside Community Land Trust manages a unique program that ‘grows’ a new generation of farmers.

In 2002, as part of the State of Rhode Island’s Open Space Preservation Act, the was purchased and preserved by the Rhode Island Division of Agriculture. SCLT is managing the property for the State and restoring 35 of its acres to active farmland.

Just 8 miles from our south Providence office, Urban Edge Farm is an ideal site for growing produce, educating new farmers and the public. Urban Edge Farm is a model farm demonstrating environmentally sound land stewardship and farming practices.

The farm hosts new farmers who collaboratively manage the farm’s operation and maintenance.  The farm also offers opportunities for volunteers to work alongside the farmers and hosts farm-related public events. The food grown by farmers at Urban Edge Farm feeds Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shareholders, Farmers’ Market customers, and diners at local restaurants, soup kitchens and food pantries.

Providence Community Growers Network

Southside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

For 30 years Southside Community Land Trust has supported urban food producers. We currently manage 16 community gardens in South Providence and provide resources and support to over 700 food gardeners through our Community Growers Network.

Do you grow food in a community garden, a home garden, a school garden, or a market garden? This network is for you! The Providence Community Growers Network (PCGN) provides access to gardening resources, education, and community building for its members, helping gardeners in Providence grow more food!

We’re working with community leaders to establish six Hubs in different Providence neighborhoods. Hubs may be community gardens or other community centers, serving as a distribution center for gardening materials and a host site for workshops and community events. We currently have Hubs in

• Southside: Davey Lopes Recreation Center (227 Dudley St.)

• West End: Groundwork Providence Community Garden (14-18 Ring St.)

• Olneyville: Manton Avenue Community Garden (40 Florence St.)

• Eastside: Sessions Street Community Garden (160 Sessions St.)

Youth Gardening Resources

Southside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

Here are some garden-based education materials that we have created or recommend for teachers and parents.

The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown. An engaging children’s book about a boy who cares for an urban garden. It can be used in conjunction with our Biodiversity in Urban Gardens (B.U.G.) curriculum.

If you are interested in getting youth in your school involved with garden education, we recommend finding a local community garden to get involved with.Or start a community garden of your own! The URI Outreach Center also offers several education programming for youth.

SCLT’s Youth Garden Club Manual is geared for helping community groups start and run successful youth garden programs. The 170-page manual compiles SCLT’s best practices for running an after-school gardening program that is both community-focused and youth-focused.

The manual includes sections on garden planning, design, suggested vegetable varieties for small-scale youth gardens, a planting calendar, and a 10-month seasonal curriculum.  The curriculum is designed for 6-12 year-olds, but can be easily adapted for younger (or older) students. Proceeds from this product goes towards SCLT’s Education program. $150, not including shipping.

Click to view a preview of the intro and a sample month lesson

Children’s Garden

southside2bSouthside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

The Children’s Garden is a 20 year old program that brings 200 elementary and middle school students to City Farm for an engaging, hands-on summer-long gardening and education enrichment.

During the summer, City Farm is green, beautiful, and full of fruits and vegetables – the perfect time for neighborhood children to learn how to grow food.

Southside Community Land Trust partners with youth summer programs at community centers and schools for the Children’s Garden. Each partner brings groups of 15-30 youth each week to tend to a special corner of City Farm – complete with fun, kid-friendly themes like a “bean teepee” and a salsa garden with tomatoes and cilantro.

Youth participants learn how to grow food – from seed to fruit! They learn about the importance of healthy soil, what compost is and how to make it, and why certain garden bugs are good for plants. They harvest salad greens, fruits, and vegetables and make delicious snacks with the foods they’ve grown.

The 8-week program integrates lessons about nutrition, the environment, and gardening into its curriculum. Each lesson is taught by the Children’s Garden Coordinator, a seasonal employee of Southside Community Land Trust and a current or future school teacher.

Children’s Garden culminates with an end-of-summer Block Party, City Fest, at City Farm. City Fest gives youth participants the chance to celebrate the end of their successful growing season and share the fruits of their labor with parents, siblings, and neighbors. City Fest’s guests enjoy music, games, and snacks – made with ingredients that the kids have grown themselves!

City Farm

cityfarmbSouthside Community Land Trust  109 Somerset St. Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

Created in 1986, City Farm is a 3/4-acre urban farm in the heart of South Providence. It is a commercial farm, a unique “outdoor classroom” for food-growing education, and an inspiring example of how to foster a vibrant ecosystem in a city.

Often referred to as an urban oasis, City Farm is a thriving center of biodiversity in the midst of the city landscape. City Farm is home to a wide array of living things. Fruit and vegetable plants are grown, including flowers, healthy soil, trees, and shrubs. Bees, birds, insects, and animals are another part of the City Farm ecosystem.

The farm is a thriving demonstration of bio-intensive farming methods, raising tons of food in a small space using environmentally sustainable methods. City Farm sells its produce to customers at several Providence farmers’ markets and at local restaurants, and regularly donates to soup kitchens and food pantries.

City Farm is also a living resource for food growers of all ages and experience levels. Food Growing workshops, youth and adult education programming, and neighborhood celebrations take place at City Farm throughout the year.

Southside Community Land Trust

southside2b109 Somerset Street  Providence, RI 02907  401-273-9419
Contact: Executive Director, Margaret DeVos
Email  Website  Facebook

Everyone needs access to healthy food. Since 1981, the Land Trust has been a forceful change agent for community food security, providing land, education, tools, and support for people to grow food for themselves in greater Providence, Rhode Island.

Our efforts have strengthened community, increased health, and enhanced the biodiversity of our natural environment.  In collaboration with neighbors and community partners we have transformed more than five acres of urban land into safe, healthy, and productive spaces to grow food, and preserved 50-acres of suburban farmland. Currently, with support from Southside Community Land Trust over 600 families city-wide have transformed vacant lots and under-used land into a network of more than 30 productive inner-city community gardens. Our education programs engage a thousand youth each year in the wonder and art of hands-on gardening.

Southside Community Land Trust’s comprehensive urban agriculture programs empower growers of all ages, including children, youth, and adults with the knowledge, skills and facilitative support to harvest high yields of food from small spaces, and to build meaningful connections to one another and nature. The safe, beautiful, and productive spaces created at SCLT’s community and school-based gardens, market farms, and education sites not only allow families to grow food, they also provide places for people to connect across economic and cultural divides to revitalize their neighborhoods, and for innovative farm businesses to thrive.

Farm Fresh Rhode Island

Farm Fresh Rhode Island
1005 Main St.  #8130  Pawtucket, RI  02860  401.312.4250 
Co-Executive Directors Sheri Griffin and Jesse Rye  
Website   Facebook   Email

Farm Fresh Rhode Island is growing a local food system that values the environment, health and quality of life of RI farmers and eaters.

Part incubator, part activator, our programs grow the local food system by building capacity in three areas: Producers → Markets → Eaters

Vision

A New England abundant with diverse family farms and fertile soils, with locally and honestly produced foods and flavors at the heart of every dinner table.

Objectives

  • Preserve Rhode Island farmland and our agricultural and culinary knowledge
  • Build healthier communities
  • Increase access to fresher, tastier food
  • Improve impact of food production and distribution on our environment
  • Strengthen community-based businesses

BankRI holding food drive

9/9/2016 – The annual food drive in support of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank is more than halfway through its seven-week stretch, ending Sept. 16. All 19 Bank Rhode Island branches are accepting food donations, which will be donated to a local food pantry, ensuring the community’s donations impact the local population of those who are most in need. More

Andrew Schiff: Ending hunger in Rhode Island

9/9/2016 – Providence Journal: The fear of going hungry has eased in Rhode Island. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported that the state’s food insecurity rate dropped to 11.8 percent, the lowest level since the recession. We should applaud this achievement because fewer Rhode Islanders are at risk for hunger and more families are able to meet their basic food needs. More