1981 was a busy year: Ronald Reagan became the 40th U.S. president, Walter Cronkite retired from CBS Evening News, and NASA launched the first Space Shuttle. And the Southside Community Land Trust was created to help the residents of south Providence grow their own food!
Debbie Schimberg, the founder and first executive director of SCLT, moved to south Providence after graduating from Brown University. She noticed a lot of abandoned houses and empty lots and worried that residents would eventually be compelled to leave due to gentrification.
At the time, the community was experiencing the first of many immigration waves from Southeast Asia and Central and South America, and many African-American transplants from the southern U.S. had moved to the neighborhood. This diverse group had something in common—many were experienced subsistence farmers who had grown up in a farming culture.
“I thought that if we put those two things together—the vacant land and the experienced farmers—it would be a neat way for people to use the land productively,” Debbie explains.
Fast forward 25 years. Among its accomplishments, SCLT has turned approximately five acres of formerly vacant lots into community gardens, expanded its farm operation to 50 preserved acres in Cranston, established the Broad Street Farmer's Market, and developed a successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Along the way, SCLT has grown, donated and sold hundreds of pounds of organic produce, helped 15 schools start their own gardens and garden clubs, hosted countless numbers of young people at City Farm's Children's Garden, educated volunteers about urban environmental and local food issues, and assisted in the start-up of seven new minority-owned farm businesses.
