SCLT’s Urban Ag Kick Off is a fun time to reconnect with neighbors, learn about sustainable growing practices, and stock up on resources, like free, non-GMO seeds and low-cost, organic fertilizer. But the most tangible benefit for SCLT members is being able to take home 50 gallons of free, high-quality, organic compost! (Make sure you sign up or re-new either before or during the event.)
From artisan chocolate makers to school administrators, exercise physiologists to SNAP outreach workers, a group of people invested in the state of local food and public health gathered at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse’s Community Table on Sept. 27.
Usually it takes somewhere between several months to a year or more for a new garden or urban farm to go from the idea stage to completion (with design and planning, funding, installation and planting in between). So, when a garden for the nonprofit Higher Ground International was built within two months of being proposed, some of its clients called it a miracle.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)—A nonprofit in Providence has been awarded nearly $600,000 in federal funding to help expand training opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers throughout Rhode Island.
A new urban farm in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood opens today. It’s the fifth urban farm created by the nonprofit Southside Community Land Trust.
The land trust has a network of 51 urban farms and community gardens. Executive Director Margaret DeVos explains that Providence needs these spaces because several of the city’s neighborhoods lack grocery stores. That means residents have limited access to produce at most of their local convenience stores.
By LEIGH VINCOLA/ecoRI News contributor
PROVIDENCE — This growing season the Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) will introduce a farming apprenticeship specifically designed for veterans and minorities. Funded by a grant from the USDA’s Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program, this is the first opportunity of its kind in the area.
Did you know that SCLT helps make it possible for some of Providence’s best restaurants to offer dishes using the tastiest, locally grown ingredients? Every week during the growing season chefs place their orders for everything from bok choy, Swiss chard and herbs to edible flowers for their culinary creations thanks to Little City Growers co-op.
SCLT’s annual Rare & Unusual Plant Sale takes place at City Farm, at the corner of Dudley and Clifford Streets in Providence’s South Side. SCLT members* can come an hour early on Saturday (9 am) a for a preview.
Debbie Schimberg started Southside Community Land Trust in 1981 with two friends who were also recent Brown University graduates. She later helped found the International Charter School in Pawtucket and the Providence Community Library. She and her husband, Kevin Neel, are the owners of Verve, makers of Glee Gum, which is headquartered in South Providence. Debbie won the 2015 U.S. Small Business Administration award for “RI Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year.”
