Expanding Food Access Through Produce Aggregation and VeggieRx Programs

For over four decades, Southside Community Land Trust has built transformative partnerships to ensure Rhode Islanders have access to culturally familiar, locally produced, affordable, and healthy food. As 38% of Rhode Island households now face food insecurity – with rates reaching 55% among Latino households and 47% among Black households – our Produce Aggregation and VeggieRx programs offer proven partnership models for community-based organizations and healthcare institutions to directly address nutrition barriers affecting their clients and patients.

Partnership Opportunities with Community-Based Organizations

SCLT’s Produce Aggregation Program creates seamless partnerships with community organizations seeking to enhance their food access services. Our current network includes vital community partners like Amos House, Project Weber/Renew, Youth Pride Inc., Beautiful Beginnings childcare center, St. Martin de Porres senior center, and the West End Community Center. These partnerships enable organizations to offer their clients fresh, locally grown produce without the complexity of sourcing, purchasing, or coordinating with individual farmers. We handle all logistics – from farmer payments at fair market rates to delivery coordination – allowing partner organizations to focus on their core mission while significantly expanding their food access offerings.

Partner organizations report universal satisfaction with both produce quality and program communication, with 83.3% stating their access to local fresh produce “greatly increased” through participation. As one community member shared, “I had lots of fresh produce that I could use! Usually I hesitate to buy fresh veggies because I don’t want them to go to waste if I’m not feeling well enough to prep and cook in the short time they are good.” Organizations serving Spanish-speaking communities particularly value our culturally responsive approach, with participants noting “Todo en fresco y las elecciones son muy buenas” (Everything is fresh and the selections are very good).

Healthcare Partnership Models Through VeggieRx

VeggieRx represents an innovative “food as medicine” partnership model for healthcare institutions seeking to address social determinants of health through nutrition interventions. Our healthcare partners include three of Rhode Island’s largest networks: Brown University Health, Integra Community Care Network, and Clínica Esperanza, as well as the Family Care Center of Pawtucket. These partnerships enable healthcare providers to literally prescribe fresh, locally grown vegetables as part of patient treatment, moving beyond traditional clinical interventions to address root causes of diet-related health conditions.

Healthcare partners appreciate VeggieRx’s comprehensive approach that requires minimal administrative burden while delivering maximum patient impact. As Dr. Sam Donovan from the Family Care Center noted, “VeggieRx has been a great way for us to promote healing and wellness while engaging with the community outside the confines of the clinic.” Each prescription includes vegetables harvested just days before by local farmers, ensuring patients receive the highest quality produce while supporting the local food system that strengthens community resilience.

Institutional and Educational Partnerships

Our partnership model extends to institutional buyers seeking to integrate local food procurement into their operations. Partners like Providence Public Schools (through Sodexo), Brown Health University, and the state’s Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program demonstrate how institutions can support both community nutrition and local agriculture. These partnerships create stable markets for small-scale farmers while ensuring institutions can reliably access fresh, local produce that meets their operational needs and values.

Supporting Farmers and Communities Together

Every partnership with SCLT supports our network of 28 small-scale farmers – many of them farmers of color who have historically faced barriers to market access. Over the 2024 growing season, our programs delivered more than 44,000 pounds of locally grown produce to 9,750 people, with 97% being low-income residents. This model creates what we call “hyperlocal commerce” that simultaneously addresses the 42.2 million meals that Rhode Island’s low-income population misses annually while building economic opportunities for local agricultural producers.

We provide comprehensive support to our farmer partners, particularly immigrant farmers facing language and technology barriers, helping them navigate grant applications, infrastructure improvements, and agricultural workshops. This ensures sustainable, long-term partnerships that benefit all stakeholders – farmers, partner organizations, and the communities they serve.

Join Our Growing Network

Whether you’re a community-based organization seeking to enhance your food access services, a healthcare institution looking to integrate nutrition interventions into patient care, or an educational institution interested in local food procurement, SCLT offers proven partnership models with demonstrated impact. Our collaborative approach ensures that partnerships are mutually beneficial, operationally seamless, and aligned with each organization’s mission and capacity.

Ready to explore a partnership? Contact Kakeena Castro, Aggregation Program Manager, to learn how VeggieRx or our Produce Aggregation Program can enhance your organization’s impact while supporting local farmers and food access in Rhode Island.