Southside Community Land Trust

10/26/2026

Word travels fast when there’s free produce on the table.

In August, SCLT was invited to set up a free farm stand at Rob Levine Law’s annual Family Fun Fest at India Point Park. Within 20 minutes, visitors had filled their bags with more than 500 pounds of locally grown, seasonal produce, all of it free.

This year we’ve hosted 14 free farm stands, with about a month left in the growing season. If you know of an event in 2027 that could use a free farm stand, get in touch.

10/25/2026

Thank you to Incredible Days for another summer collaborting on impactful volunteer projects at SCLT!

Groups of about 20 volunteers visited once a month in June, July, and August for full workdays at Good Earth Farm, weeding, clearing invasives, and harvesting alongside our farmers. They worked through sun, heat, rain, and wind, and turned up a few creepy crawly surprises along the way. Each visit included a shared meal and ended with a beautiful tradition: a closing circle where volunteers each shared one thing they’d learned through their experience.

We’re already looking forward to having them back in 2027!

10/24/2026

We’re 95% of the way to our 2026 Annual Fund goal of $500,000!

That support is how SCLT distributed 60,000 pounds of produce this year, backed 45 farmers working 73 acres of land, and kept 22 community gardens open to 325 gardeners speaking 34 languages. It’s why 14 free farm stands reached more than 1,750 neighbors with food at no cost, and why more than 26,000 people were served across our programs this year.

We have 5% left to raise. With your support, we can get there and we can ensure these programs are sustained.

Now look at these beautiful pumpkins, planted, grown, and harvested by our Providence Youth Program at the Somerset-Hayward Youth Enterprise Farm in South Providence 😍

Give: southsideclt.org/donate

10/23/2026

Southside Community Land Trust’s produce giveaway partnership with Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center turns three years old this year.

Led by Beautiful Beginnings Executive Director Khadija Lewis Khan and SCLT’s Healthy Food Access Program Manager Kakeena Matos, the partnership will distribute 1,000 shares of free, local produce in 2026. Half go to Beautiful Beginnings staff, and half go to families of the children who attend. Each share weighs 3 to 10 pounds and changes with the season. Right now, bags hold cooking greens like collards and kale, herbs like cilantro, peppers, chayote, potatoes, onions, carrots, and squash.

Thank you to the Beautiful Beginnings staff who advocated for this partnership and keep it running. Special thanks to Cibil and Sam who helped unload and carry 100 bags this morning!

Learn more about Beautiful Beginnings: https://www.bbchildcareri.org

10/21/2026

Thank you to commonfont for another year of showing up for SCLT.

Staff from the Providence-based company have volunteered with us for years, and several have become familiar faces at our Rare & Unusual Plant Sale and at our seasonal farm stands. A crew from CommonFont spent a soggy, steamy August afternoon with us at Manton Bend Community Garden, clearing invasive plants along 200 feet of a six foot tall fence line. In two hours, their hard work and team work tackled a project that would have taken our staff days. They filled TWENTY NINE yard waste bags! It means gardeners’ plots got more sunlight, there's more room for native plants to take root, and there's more space for pedestrians to access the area more safely.

Along the way, Education & Gardens Network Manager Chandelle taught the group about the edible and medicinal properties of some of the plants pushing up through the concrete, like buckthorn plantain and purslane.

Thank you, CommonFont, for digging in with us!

10/21/2026

Thanks for visiting our South Providence Healthy Food Hub Senator Sheldon Whitehouse! Here, more than 60,000 pounds of fresh, local produce was aggregated and distributed to dozens of food access community partners in 2026. And we loved having you at City Farm, RI's longest operating urban production and demonstration farm! The food and nutrition emergency in our state is real and we truly appreciate your partnership to build a local food system that supports all Rhode Islanders.

10/21/2026

SCLT’s Matthew Tracy is speaking at the 2026 Regional Conservation Partnership Network Gathering, a free conference on building a shared food future through conservation and collaboration.

The gathering is Thursday, November 5, at UMass Amherst. Matt, who has served as SCLT’s Land Access Manager and now our Properties & Farms Manager, joins the session “From Collaboration to Capital: Building Regional Farmland Access and Funding Partnerships,” which looks at how regional partnerships can coordinate funding for farmland access and food security, including the development of a Farmland Access Fund in Rhode Island.

Registration is free and closes Monday, October 26. Learn more and register here: https://bit.ly/RCPNG2026

10/19/2026

10/17/2026

Southside Community Land Trust’s annual Year End Celebration returns Friday, December 4, from 4 to 8pm at the South Providence Healthy Food Hub, 404 Broad Street, 2nd floor.

At its heart, this night is a potluck. Every year, gardeners, farmers, staff, and neighbors fill the table with dishes from kitchens and cultures across our community, and it’s one of the best meals of the year. If you’re able, please bring something to share. If you can’t bring something this year, come anyway. There’s always plenty to go around.

Along with the food, there will be music, karaoke, raffles, door prizes, and activities for kids. We’ll also present our Farmer of the Year and Garden Leader of the Year awards, and pay tribute to the community members we lost in 2026.

The invitation goes out to everyone: community gardeners, farmers and their field crews, staff and their families, partner organizations, members, friends, and anyone who wants to learn more about SCLT.

Please let us know you’re coming: https://bit.ly/SCLTCelebration2026

Watercolor by Jordan Ramos

10/16/2026

City Farm's third and final BioBlitz of the year wrapped up on October 4, with 121 species documented across the day, including chalcidoid wasps, Mackay's fragile fern, and even a brush-legged split wolf spider. Combined with the spring and summer sessions, this year's total sits at over 400 species logged across City Farm's three-quarter-acre plot, from insects and fungi to birds, mammals, reptiles, and trees.

This is year two of a ten-year partnership with 15 Minute Field Trips, aimed at documenting the biodiversity living across ten of SCLT's community gardens and farms, one site at a time. Peace & Plenty Community Garden hosted the project's first three sessions last year, and next year the BioBlitz series moves to Galego Community Farm in Pawtucket.

Every observation from all three sessions is logged on iNaturalist and contributes to ongoing biodiversity research.

Thank you to everyone who came out this year, whether for one session or all three, to spend a few hours looking closely at what shares City Farm with us. See you next year at Galego!