Southside Community Land Trust

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Southside Community Land Trust SCLT creates community food systems where locally grown, affordable and healthy food is available to all.

We provide land, education and other resources so people in Rhode Island can grow food in safe and environmentally sustainable ways. Southside Community Land Trust is a change agent for people in Rhode Island who have been systematically excluded from accessing healthy, affordable food. We enable gardeners and farmers to grow culturally appealing produce without toxic chemicals primarily for people living in marginalized communities.

Kevin, Program Manager with Bloom Rhode Island and Chandelle, SCLT’s Education & Community Gardens Programs Manager, led...
10/09/2026

Kevin, Program Manager with Bloom Rhode Island and Chandelle, SCLT’s Education & Community Gardens Programs Manager, led a well-attended walk through Galego Community Farm recently, talking honestly about what the site is and what it could become.

There are big challenges: it sits on a steep hillside, pest and w**d pressure are relentless, and community engagement has been limited. There are big possibilities too! Thanks to our decade-long partnership with Pawtucket Housing Authority, this is the home base for SCLT’s Pawtucket Workforce Development Program, sitting right on the Galego Court housing development. And because of our Bloom Violet grant, there are plans in motion for seating, signage, and open garden events that will turn it into the community green space it’s meant to be.

Attendees came from across the field, including environmental protection, composting, agriculture, and planning. The afternoon wrapped with a picnic on a perfect late summer day.

Catch the Bloom RI crew at our Peace & Plenty Community Garden on October 24. Check out their profile for more info!

Southside Community Land Trust has received a multi-year grant from Point32Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm of H...
10/06/2026

Southside Community Land Trust has received a multi-year grant from Point32Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, continuing a partnership that has supported our work for several years. This funding will fuel delivery of food access programming to older adults.

This grant is one of 21 new investments totaling more than $3.5 million from the Foundation this year, aimed at nonprofits working to improve conditions for older adults and build thriving, healthier communities for people of all ages.

"As a not-for-profit health plan, we know that healthier communities ensure better outcomes and more affordable care for everyone," said Kristin Lewis, president of the Point32Health Foundation and executive vice president of Point32Health. "Through these investments we are working with community organizations to create environments where individuals can live with dignity, connection and opportunity as they age."

Thank you, Point32Health Foundation, for supporting our mission and improving health outcomes here in Rhode Island.

Southside Community Land Trust is pleased to welcome Diane Pelletier to our Board of Directors!Diane is no stranger to S...
10/05/2026

Southside Community Land Trust is pleased to welcome Diane Pelletier to our Board of Directors!

Diane is no stranger to SCLT. She has volunteered at our Rare & Unusual Plant Sale for years and currently serves on its planning committee, helping shape our biggest annual event from the inside.

Prior to her recent retirement, Diane, MSW, was a healthcare regulatory leader with over two decades of experience in long-term care oversight and social work. She most recently served as Chief of the Center for Health Facilities Regulation at the Rhode Island Department of Health, where she supervised a staff of 28 and oversaw regulatory compliance for 35 federal and state-licensed health care facilities. She also represented the Department as a board member on the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, chaired by the Lieutenant Governor.

Diane's career at the Department of Health spanned nearly two decades, progressing from Health Facility Surveyor to Deputy Chief before stepping into her most recent role. Her background also includes hands-on clinical social work experience as a per diem social worker at Kent Regency in Warwick, where she supported resident-directed care and cognition-related assessments. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Long Term Care Ombudsman in Larimer County, Colorado, advocating for residents in assisted living and nursing facilities, and gained clinical experience as a Care Coordinator at The Children's Hospital in Denver, working with child and adolescent psychiatric patients.

Diane holds a Master of Social Work from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Welcome, Diane!

Thank you to MTMG for naming Southside Community Land Trust the charity partner for their September 15 event, Room to Gr...
10/01/2026

Thank you to MTMG for naming Southside Community Land Trust the charity partner for their September 15 event, Room to Grow: A Holistic Approach to Raising Revenue, hosted at Dirigo in Warwick.

In place of a ticket, guests at the event were invited to give what they could to support our work growing healthy food access across Rhode Island. Dirigo's founder, Tim Hebert, has been invested in SCLT's growth for several years now, and we're grateful for the continued connection. Tim is pictured here (left) with SCLT's Development Director Marcel, along with MTMG CEO Paul Knittle.

Thank you to everyone in that room who chose to give.

09/30/2026

100 shares of locally and organically grown produce from small farmers in the Southside Community Land Trust network are headed off to Renaissance Adult Day Center where older adults will receive 6-10 pounds of this fresh food for free. Check out the gorgeous seasonal produce being shared! This delivery happens every other week during the 20-week growing season, so we'll deliver 1,000 shares to this org in 2026.

If you were to walk into a Providence-area grocery store today and purchase these veggies from the organic section (which were likely harvested more than a week ago and traveled hundreds of miles to make it here), you could expect to pay about $46. As other living expenses rise, this cost puts fresh food out of reach for a huge portion of the population and leaves people without the nutrition their bodies need.

Our Healthy Food Access Program leverages our farmer and food access community connections to bridge this perilous gap. Support our food access work today: https://bit.ly/SCLTDonate

Southside Community Land Trust had some good company at the The Good Earth Farm & Garden Center and Urban Edge Farm stan...
09/29/2026

Southside Community Land Trust had some good company at the The Good Earth Farm & Garden Center and Urban Edge Farm stand this week.

Emily Sutherland, Red Tomato's Food Access Coordinator, and Angel Méndez, the organization's Executive Director, met with SCLT Executive Director Margaret DeVos and Farmer Training and Equipment Manager Dan Roberts to talk through what could come next for some of our growers. The focus was was exploring new markets for SCLT-network farmers, and understanding how Red Tomato's technology and systems could open up more local outlets built around what actually works at a small farm's scale.

Red Tomato has spent decades building fairer supply chains between small farms and the retailers who carry their produce, working across the Northeast and Midwest to connect growers with buyers on terms that make sense for both sides.

Learn more about Red Tomato's work: redtomato.org

Nine volunteers from Whole Foods Market's Waterman Street location spent a morning with SCLT a couple of weeks ago, spli...
09/26/2026

Nine volunteers from Whole Foods Market's Waterman Street location spent a morning with SCLT a couple of weeks ago, splitting their time between two sites that make up the backbone of our food access work.

The day started at our South Providence Healthy Food Hub, then we walked to City Farm and got a tour of the biointensive growing practices that have shaped the farm for decades, led by City Farm Steward Ellen. From there, the group split in two. Half headed back to the Hub, where they worked alongside Healthy Food Access Program Manager Kakeena and Farah to sort and pack produce that had arrived the day before and was headed out to a food access partner that same afternoon. The rest stayed at City Farm for the Friday morning harvest, picking crops bound for the Hope Street Farmers' Market the following day.

Volunteer partnerships like this one keep the food moving, literally, from the ground to a neighbor's table, and Whole Foods Market has shown up for that work again and again in our history.

⛈ SCLT Event Update ⛈We're in for a windy, wet weekend! There were a few events scheduled over the next several days for...
09/25/2026

⛈ SCLT Event Update ⛈

We're in for a windy, wet weekend! There were a few events scheduled over the next several days for SCLT farmers, gardeners, and friends but, due to the risks presented by the forecasted weather, they've been canceled or rescheduled.

🌳 Restoration Walk
This was scheduled for Friday, September 25 at 5:30pm at Peace & Plenty Community Garden, 73 Peace Street in Providence with our friends 15 Minute Field Trips, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, and Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy Inc. This has been RESCHEDULED to October 13, same time, same place! More info and sign up here: https://bit.ly/TreeWalk925

🥬 Hope Street Farmers Market
The Hope Street Farmers' Market is CANCELED for this Saturday, September 26 but you can find SCLT-network farmers City Farm, Sanctuary Herbs, Charlotte's Farm, Daily Farm, and Wilson Community Farm, along with tons of our friends in local agriculture, back at Lippit Memorial Park on Saturday, October 3. The season runs through October 31.

👩🏾‍🌾 Come Visit: Good Earth Farm
This farm tour and tasty treats event scheduled for Sunday, September 27 is CANCELED. Stay tuned for announcements of another event at the farm in October, and be sure to stop in at Sanctuary Herbs of Providence for your teas, culinary herbs, and unique gifts. They're open at 1800 Scituate Ave in Cranston, Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and Sundays 10 to 4. The farmer-run co-op farm stand is also open for self-service and stocked with the freshest produce, grown on site!

We'll catch you at the next event!

City Farm's third and final BioBlitz of the year is October 4, from 11am to 2pm. It's open to everyone who wants to spen...
09/24/2026

City Farm's third and final BioBlitz of the year is October 4, from 11am to 2pm. It's open to everyone who wants to spend a few hours looking closely at what's living on this three-quarter-acre urban farm!

This year's first two sessions turned up 340 species combined: plants, insects, fungi, reptiles, mammals, birds, and trees, all documented in iNaturalist as part of a biodiversity research effort. It's year two of a ten-year project we have planned to explore the biodiversity of SCLT's properties, one site at a time. Peace & Plenty Community Garden hosted the first round last year; next year moves to Galego Community Farm in Pawtucket.

This event is hosted in partnership with 15 Minute Field Trips and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey. No experience necessary, all ages welcome, free to attend.

📍 168 West Clifford Street, Providence

Peace & Plenty Community Garden is protected for good!Earlier this month, gardeners, SCLT board and staff, community lea...
09/23/2026

Peace & Plenty Community Garden is protected for good!

Earlier this month, gardeners, SCLT board and staff, community leaders and friends gathered at the garden to celebrate a promise three decades in the making. Property owner and former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino permanently donated the garden's four parcels, worth a combined $576,000, to Southside Community Land Trust, securing the land's future as a community garden after SCLT began leasing it from St. Joseph's Hospital back in 1989.

"Peace & Plenty Garden represents the very best of what community spaces can be, a place where neighbors come together, families grow healthy food and generations build lasting connections," said Joe. "We made a commitment that this garden would be permanently protected, and I am proud to see that promise realized."

SCLT Executive Director Margaret DeVos reflected on what the donation means after nearly forty years of leasing the land: "When he purchased the hospital property in 2017, almost 30 years later, we suddenly saw a bright new future, one where the garden could finally be protected for generations of gardeners and community members. That future is now, thanks to Joe's thoughtful and generous decision to donate the garden to our organization."

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley also joined the celebration, calling the donation an example of what makes Providence neighborhoods strong: residents coming together to care for the places they call home.

Thank you to Joe and Paolino Properties for this gift, and to everyone who has planted, w**ded, and shown up at Peace & Plenty over the years.

Photo credit: Angel Tavares, P&P gardener.

Address

404 Broad Street
Providence, RI
02907

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14012739419

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Southside Community Land Trust posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Southside Community Land Trust:

Shortcuts

Share

Category