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Farm Fresh Rhode Island
1005 Main St #1220
Pawtucket, RI 02860
(401) 312-4250
Donate to Farm Fresh Rhode Island and support our work toward more environmentally and socially sustainable food in our region.
Hannah Mellion
Food System Activator - hannah@farmfreshri.org
Hannah discovered a passion for food and agriculture after completing a cross-country cycling trip in 2006. Weeks of cycling through magnificent wheat and massive corn fields provided her first real look at agriculture in this country, and caused her to question where all that corn was going! Her curiously led her to learn more about the way we produce food and to become interested and involved in the local foods movement. The local foods movement also provided a perfect way to combine her interests in health, nutrition, agriculture, and community work.
After spending numerous summers working on urban and rural farms, she found her way to Farm Fresh RI in 2008. Today, Hannah works on Farm Fresh RI's distribution related programs, including Market Mobile and Veggie Box, and Farm to School/Institution/Hospital initiatives.
Jen Stott
Harvest Kitchen Chef Educator - chefjen@farmfreshri.org
Harvest Kitchen is an all-encompassing job for Jennifer. Cooking has always been a lifelong passion. Her parents were both educators and are now happy to see their daughter follow their vocation. As a child, summers were spent cultivating her family's large fruit and vegetable gardens. The fall was a time for preserving jars of delicious foods for the winter. Harvest Kitchen allows Jennifer to enjoy the opportunity to educate urban youth and create delicious products while assisting farmers by putting their excess harvest to a good cause.
Jesse Rye
Managing Director - jesse@farmfreshri.org
Jesse is from a small town in Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan. His family tree is populated with cheesemakers, barbers and general store owners. As a result, entrepreneurship and supporting local business is in his blood. As he grew up, many of the core industries in Jesse's small community locked their doors. Simultaneously, family farms were closing and being replaced by factory farms. These dramatic changes inspired Jesse to learn how communities could revitalize themselves economically while preserving their unique sense of place, cultural traditions and environmental integrity. He has worked locally as a nonprofit manager; nationally as a researcher and advocate; and statewide as program director and communications specialist. These collective experiences have given him a perspective on how innovative people and organizations serving social causes build stronger communities. Jesse is an avid cook and gardener. He is glad to now call Rhode Island home.
Kayla Ringelheim
Healthy Neighborhoods Coordinator - kayla@farmfreshri.org
Kayla first learned about Farm Fresh RI while in college at Brown University, where she was "that girl" who went to the Farmer's Market every week to buy apples and root vegetables. She began volunteering at markets in 2009, and the more she learned about the national and local food systems, the more intrigued she became with the intersection between agriculture and health. With a background in Human Biology, Kayla comes to Farm Fresh with a passion for how the local food movement is inextricably linked with the health of its respective communities. Kayla works to support FFRI's market-based nutrition education and access initiatives (Healthy Foods Healthy Families; Fruit and Vegetable Rx; Healthy Servings for Seniors), and also serves as a community liaison for larger public health discussions around the state. Kayla is excited to be part of a movement that seeks to improve the environment, the local economy, and individuals' personal well-being simultaneously.
Kim Clark
Farm to School Coordinator - kimclark@farmfreshri.org
Chef Kimberly has been an enthusiastic consumer and creator of food her entire life. At Farm Fresh, Kimberly is the RI Farm to School Coordinator, promoting RI grown produce to RI school communities. She is a member of the Northeast Regional Steering Committee for the National Farm to School Network, a contributing member of the 6 state collaborative FINE: Farm to Institution in New England and affiliated with School Food FOCUS, a national collaborative that leverages the knowledge and procurement power of large school districts to make school meals nationwide more healthful, regionally sourced, and sustainably produced.
Kimberly teaches educational programs about local farms, cooking and nutrition to audiences of all ages and helps to develop sustainable relationships between farmers, food service directors and distributors throughout the New England region. As a chef, Kimberly brings her wealth of local food experience to every dish she creates, helping others to understand, appreciate and develop a preference for seasonal cooking and locally produced ingredients.
Chef Kimberly graduated summa cum laude from Johnson and Wales University with a BS in Culinary Nutrition and an AS in Culinary Arts. She is ServSafe certified.
Kimberly Garofolo
Markets Associate - kimberly@farmfreshri.org
Trimming fresh string beans and pulling up carrots from her Grandmother's garden was a ritual for Kimberly, as everyone had their part in preparing the family's weekly, Sunday feast. Having access to this family garden and growing up in a Connecticut town that had farms all around, it was easy to appreciate the amazing tastes of locally grown produce. After visiting a local farm stand, she would often grab a tomato and start chomping on it as soon as her Mom paid for it.
While living in New York City after college, Kimberly worked at a small Italian restaurant named Caffe Buon Gusto (meaning "good taste"). All the food was made with fresh ingredients, something that gave her pride in the food she served. Most of the produce came from New Jersey farms, the pasta from a local producer and the fish from a Connecticut fisherman. Fresh, wholesome, local foods did taste amazingly good!
Kimberly has an appreciation for the communities in which she's lived and especially loves Rhode Island. She also believes that most people take pride in and enjoy supporting their local economies by buying local. To support this belief, she is happy in her role as outreach for Market Mobile. She enjoys connecting with local businesses by offering them locally grown produce and locally made products through Farm Fresh RI's awesome, wholesale distribution program.
Mikayla Moretti
Nutrition Education VISTA - mikayla@farmfreshri.org
Mikayla grew up in a household where food played a central role in her family's day-to-day life. The dinner table brought the whole family together every day and served as a place to gather and celebrate, always appreciating and savoring the delicious flavors of each home cooked meal. This love for and devotion to food led her to study nutrition in college and develop an even stronger passion for food, extending further to the connection between the food we eat, the health of our bodies and the health of the land from which it is grown. Mikayla has several years of experience teaching nutrition and garden education in traditional classroom settings, as well as outdoor and experiential-based learning environments. Upon graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 2010 with a B.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics, Mikayla went on to live and work on 3 organic farms as an apprentice where she gained invaluable firsthand experience in the principles of sustainable agriculture, community development, and the relationship between animals and humans, the environment, and how our food is produced.
Now as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Farm Fresh, Mikayla coordinates and teaches the Healthy Foods Healthy Families nutrition program at farmers markets, connecting families to good food and sound nutrition, and empowering them to live healthy lives.
Molly Bledsoe
Healthy Seniors Coordinator - molly@farmfreshri.org
Molly started volunteering at the Wintertime Farmers' Market in December 2008 on a whim, and just kept showing up. Working for Farm Fresh RI opened her eyes to the local food movement and the larger environmental movement, causing her to change her concentration at Brown University from English to Environmental Studies. Now a graduate, she is serving a year-long Americorps VISTA term as the market data guru and co-coordinator for the Healthy Servings for Seniors program. What she loves the most about working for Farm Fresh is the feeling of community among the vendors at markets and the customers; happy people brought together by good food!
Noah Fulmer
Executive Director - noah@farmfreshri.org
Noah grew up in central New Jersey where suburban development pressures are a persistent challenge to farm viability. The deep taste of a freshly picked blueberry won Noah over at an early age. He was raised on corn from the farmstand down the road and spoiled by the flavors of his grandmother's traditional soups -- made fresh from vegetables growing in the small backyard-turned-garden that lay just beyond her kitchen window. But despite the "Garden State" nostalgia, new houses and strip malls were devouring nearby farmland. Noah saw the same patterns after moving to Rhode Island for college.
Noah's passion led him to co-found Farm Fresh Rhode Island. How could you ensure that local farms and just-picked foods have a place in our communities? People want to buy locally grown foods, but don't necessarily have the resources. The Internet is an ideal starting point for providing information about Rhode Island's farmers' markets, farms and foods. In fact, it would be critical if family farms are to compete in the modern food system. So despite having sworn off computer coding after two perilous years in high school, the need for a web-based information tool for farms and consumers is too pressing. Noah led both the design and production of the Farm Fresh RI website, with the hopes of expanding access to locally grown foods and sustaining farmstands and fresh flavors for generations to come. Today, in addition to the website, Noah oversees organizational programming, partnerships and strategy.
Paula Gill
Business Manager - paula@farmfreshri.org
Paula is a local urban gardener with a love for growing and eating fresh organic produce. A recent trip to Italy sparked a desire to change the way she fed herself, after being deeply impacted by Italians' passionate relationship to food and the Slow Food movement there. Since returning, she has dreamt of farming in Tuscany. By joining the Davis Park Community Gardens, as well as becoming a first year beekeeper, she has been able to make this dream a reality right here in Providence.
Paula brings with her a first-hand knowledge of running a small business, in addition to her knack for numbers. She is excited about joining Farm Fresh Rhode Island and being a member of the local sustainable food movement.
Russ Boullard
Market Mobile Lead Receiver - russ@farmfreshri.org
Many years ago, Russ drove by the Hope High School farmers market. He stopped by because he thought it looked interesting, and hasn't missed visiting a weekly farmers market since. A 20-year resident of Pawtucket, Russ has had a passion for food ever since taking a culinary arts class in high school. Now as a single dad trying to get his daughter to eat well, he not only appreciates farmers markets, but also has a vibrant garden of his own. Russ started working for Farm Fresh at the end of 2010 as a Market Manager. He began volunteering for Market Mobile soon thereafter, and gradually became a strong part of the Market Mobile team. Currently, Russ runs warehouse receiving from farmers, and he makes twice-a-week deliveries of local produce to businesses throughout RI and MA.
Ryan Reeves
Harvest Kitchen Coordinator - ryan@farmfreshri.org
Ryan's six year sojourn living off the grid in Southern Vermont centered his thoughts on living well and simply. He is a firm believer in preservation, of land, of community, of old time skills, and of endangered words. His firm belief in the power of the individual to affect change, on a personal or systemic level, has led him (somehow) to helping local youth do the same, and he loves it.
Sarah Lester
Markets Coordinator - sarah@farmfreshri.org
Sarah Lester grew up on a farm in Delaware and moved to Providence to attend Brown University, where she studied International Relations - the Global Environment. Sarah then spent two years hopping around New England as an AmeriCorps VISTA for Ashoka's Youth Venture, a youth development non-profit that focuses on youth social entrepreneurship. Through her time with AmeriCorps she developed an entrepreneurial spirit and strong commitment to serving the community. After volunteering with Farm Fresh Rhode Island in various capacities, she reconnected with her agricultural roots and joined the Farm Fresh Rhode Island staff! Now she supports the amazing farmers of Rhode Island (and MA, CT!), while helping to build Rhode Island's sustainable food system. Sarah's emphasis is on access to healthy, fresh foods, specifically in low-income communities, and she strives to involve all members of the community in the local food movement.
Sheri Griffin
Program Director - sheri@farmfreshri.org
After establishing a farm stand and mail order citrus business with her parents and grandparents after high school, Sheri Griffin attended the University of Rhode Island, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and biology. After graduation, Ms. Griffin entered the nonprofit world, beginning as Director of Development and Publicity at AS220, a nonprofit arts center in Providence. Since then, she has worked at a range of nonprofits of various sizes and has become active in her neighborhood, working with other volunteers to keep a library branch open and starting a community garden.