A hub for local food since 2004
Since 2004, Farm Fresh Rhode Island has been working tirelessly on growing and strengthening our local food system. Over the years, we have evolved to better serve the community — from our simple start as a Brown University student project to a nationally recognized nonprofit with a dedicated team of over 50 full- and part-time/seasonal employees. See some highlights of our work through the years.
In December, after 16 years at Farm Fresh RI, Co-Executive Director Sheri Griffin steps down. In Sheri’s time at Farm Fresh RI, the organization has grown from a student-led project in shared office space in a basement at Brown University to an organization with a staff of 50 and a…Read More
A new technology platform for Market Mobile is the culmination of years of working with RI-based developers Jake and Co. to update the decades-old system. This much needed upgrade makes ordering and check-out easier for shoppers and gives farmers and food producers streamlined tools to connect with a variety of…Read More
An independent but fiscally sponsored program of Farm Fresh RI since 2018, Hope’s Harvest becomes an official program of Farm Fresh RI. By joining Farm Fresh RI’s infrastructure, Hope’s Harvest builds our capacity to deliver local gleaned produce to an additional 20 hunger relief agencies via Market Mobile. The Hope’s…Read More
The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Division of Agriculture upgrades its Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) bulk purchase pilot program to provide an estimated 12,800 boxes of fresh RI food to eligible seniors. We are proud to partner with DEM and the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging (OHA)…Read More
We are proud to be home to small food and farm businesses, who begin moving in and opening up shop throughout the year. Together we represent many aspects of the local food system, from sourcing and gleaning to production, distribution, and sales. Businesses at Farm Fresh RI now include: Anchor…Read More
We are proud to be honored by Grow Smart Rhode Island as an Outstanding Smart Growth Project for our new headquarters, farmers market space, and hub for local food in Providence. By incorporating numerous smart growth principles, Farm Fresh RI has breathed new life into a 3+ acre former…Read More
The public is invited to watch renowned stone carver Nicholas Benson of Newport create a unique art installation for our new headquarters. With this installation, we celebrate a culmination of years repurposing the site where our hub for local food and farms now sits, while retrieving physical pieces of Rhode…Read More
With the development of the Farm to Food Pantry grant, 28 different local organizations and food pantries partner to purchase locally grown food for those most vulnerable in our community through Market Mobile. The funds for this program — a substantial total of $175,000 — are generously funded by four…Read More
Since its start in 2007, our wintertime farmers market has been pivotal for farmer and food producer sales and community food access in the colder New England months. With the closure of many other winter markets for the 2020-2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our team works hard to…Read More
We can’t wait to welcome farmers and customers to our brand-new building in Providence, where we continue to serve the local food community with greater capacity and much improved facilities.
We complete development of our purpose-designed 60,000 sq. ft. facility on the corner of Kinsley Ave and Sims Ave in the Valley neighborhood of Providence. Half of the space is designed to house our programs and operations, including our wintertime farmers market. Remaining space is leased to food and farm-related…Read More
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more Rhode Islanders than ever are in need of emergency and supplemental food. At the same time, Rhode Island farmers and food sector businesses are facing widespread market and supply chain disruption. U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Representatives Jim Langevin and…Read More
In a year unlike any other, we open up our Market Mobile local food delivery service to include residential customers. The necessary pivot of extending this service, typically for wholesale buyers, to Rhode Island residents is the best way we can get local eaters connected with the fresh food our…Read More
As contractors begin to clear the industrial site that we acquired for our new headquarters, they find that the land was filled with pieces of marble, ranging from massive blocks to small chunks. Research reveals that the marble found on our site dates back to the late 1890s, when the…Read More
After many years of planning and designing the building, performing due diligence, acquiring and remediating the formerly blighted site, and raising in excess of $15 million, we break ground on our new headquarters on Sims Avenue in Providence. We track the impressive progress of this development project with these detailed…Read More
Marking a new chapter in our work out of state, the NIFA grant also empowers us to support the nutrition incentives programs offered by Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont through the creation of the New England Nutrition Incentive Collaborative (NENIC). The grant awarded to Farm Fresh RI, administered by…Read More
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award a $4,628,765 grant to expand our Bonus Bucks program. This funding enables us to provide an impressive 100% match for SNAP users at select RI farmers markets, CSAs, and farm stands — doubling the purchasing power…Read More
Our newly realized vision for the Harvest Kitchen Café (now no longer a corner store) expands on our current line of youth-made jarred products to offer an extensive menu of freshly made dishes that appeal to an even wider variety of customers while supporting even more farmers and small food…Read More
With comprehensive due diligence efforts completed and financing in place, we take ownership of a 3.2 acre parcel of land (the former Eastern Wire site) in the Valley neighborhood of Providence, once a hub for Rhode Island manufacturing and industry. It will be the future location of our newest and…Read More
Our Harvest Kitchen Cafe & Corner Store opens — offering the community fresh local produce and groceries, youth-made products, and prepared foods for eat-in or take out. The training program expands to include both morning and afternoon sessions. We begin planning with the RI Department of Health to offer nutritious…Read More
After much deliberation, we decide to stop our Veggie Box subscription service as it was formerly structured. Instead, we begin offering the opportunity to purchase local food as a Buying Club through Market Mobile.
Working closely with the city of Pawtucket and Pawtucket Central Falls Development, we move our Harvest Kitchen training program and production kitchen into the first floor of the newly renovated Gately building at 2 Bayley Street in downtown Pawtucket.
We take on statewide distribution of nutrition incentives for recipients of federal SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits at Rhode Island farmers markets. Our Community Access team begins ongoing participation in many of the Health Equity Zone programs newly formed by the RI Department of Health.
Our board of directors approves adoption of the Food Solutions New England Food Vision as a guiding vision for our organization. The regional plan has a bold vision of building capacity for New England to grow 50 percent of its own food by 2060. As of 2016, as much as 90% of…Read More
Long having outgrown our office space upstairs at Hope Artiste Village, we move into an expanded and newly renovated space on the first floor of the building, close to our Packhouse. Around this time we also begin working with real estate and community developer Lucie Searle on planning and developing…Read More
We are proud to achieve Good Handling Practices (GHP) certification, a third-party food safety audit through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
After guiding our organization through tremendous growth, and establishing Farm Fresh RI as a respected local food hub in the community, Noah Fulmer moves on to new horizons. Sheri Griffin and Jesse Rye become Co-Executive Directors, dividing core responsibility for Community Access and Food System Enterprise programs between them to…Read More
Thanks to collaborating with ColdMasters and support from the Prospect Hill Foundation, CEI, and Wholesome Wave, we complete a cooler expansion in our Packhouse — doubling our holding capacity for local produce and dairy before it is delivered to Market Mobile wholesale customers and Veggie Box subscribers.
Market Mobile finishes its fifth year with $1.9 million in sales on behalf of local farmers and producers, bringing the total sales since 2009 to $5.5 million.
The Harvest Kitchen program moves into a small kitchen space on Pawtucket Ave, a few blocks from our offices.
Market Mobile finishes its fourth year with $1.56 million of fresh, local food delivered on behalf of over 50 producers to over 120 customers. A new record for weekly sales is hit in October when $48,000 of local produce is delivered in one week.
We begin offering nutrition education and local food awareness programs in Rhode Island schools, encouraging school dining services to focus more on local, seasonal foods and providing students with hands-on learning opportunities to increase awareness and enjoyment of nutritious food choices.
Jesse Rye is hired as our Managing Director, to help guide the organization as it continues growing and evolving.
With our Market Mobile wholesale distribution service continuing to grow rapidly, the infrastructure is already in place to offer a curated box of locally grown produce to consumers as well. And so our Veggie Box subscription service is born! To facilitate more efficient Veggie Box packing, we install manual conveyor…Read More
We move our offices to the Hope Artiste Village (upstairs) and begin our first Market Mobile deliveries — facilitating transformative buying relationships between local farmers and wholesale buyers. The pilot program is made possible thanks to collaboration with the RI Department of Health, RI DEM Division of Agriculture, and Narragansett…Read More
We launch the Harvest Kitchen project. The first session of our culinary job training program for youth involved with the RI Department of Children, Youth, and Families is held in a commercial kitchen in Providence. The second session is in a church on Broad St, and the third is in…Read More
Following the lead of comparable organizations around the country, and with the support of national organization Wholesome Wave, Farm Fresh RI institutes a nutrition incentive program called Bonus Bucks. Bonus Bucks gives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) shoppers an extra $2 to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables for every…Read More
Customer and farmer demand is so great after the Wintertime Farmers Market debut at AS220 in 2007, that we move the market to the Hope Artiste Village building in Pawtucket on the recommendation of friends and market partners New Harvest Coffee Roasters and Seven Stars Bakery, which had already set…Read More
Our Heathy Foods, Healthy Families nutrition education program is born, for its initial season offered at just one Providence farmers market. With the pilot season a success, the program is provided in future seasons at multiple Farm Fresh RI farmers markets annually. The program offers hands-on multicultural workshops about food…Read More
When Food Stamps changed from a paper coupon to an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card in the late 1990s, many Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients were left unable to use their benefits at farmers markets. Farmers didn’t have the infrastructure to accept EBT cards, so customers had to shop…Read More
We host our first-ever Wintertime Farmers Market, thanks to the generous donation of space by AS220 (the farmers market takes place inside the gallery!). Around this time, Louella Hill returns to Rhode Island and works with Providence Specialty Products on developing an artisanal cheese project. Together they launch Narragansett…Read More
A friend and mentor, Sheri Griffin, begins helping Louella Hill with grant writing and consolidating her works into a full-fledged organization. Together with Noah Fulmer, they incorporate Farm Fresh RI as a 501c3 nonprofit, based out of the Urban Environmental Lab at Brown University. Louella’s original advisory committee becomes Farm…Read More
Louella teams up with fellow Brown University student and Sustainable Food Initiative member Noah Fulmer to create an online database of local farms, farmers markets, restaurants, grocers, and other businesses sourcing and serving locally grown foods. The Local Food Guide enables consumers (aka “eaters”) to easily locate local foods. They…Read More
As an undergraduate at Brown University working on her thesis project, Louella Hill begins asking questions about our local food system. She’d noticed a disconnect between local farmers and eaters in our region, and wants to address it. With help from her advisory committee — including key community stakeholders like…Read More
Farm Fresh Rhode Island is an Equal Opportunity Provider
401–312–4250
10 Sims Ave, unit 103
Providence, RI 02909