Today we’d like to introduce you to Francey Slater and Lydia Sisson.
Francey, please share your story with us.
Mill City Grows started in 2011 when Lydia and I (co-founders) took a leap of faith to launch a Food Justice initiative in Lowell. We were both commuting outside of our home community of Lowell to go to work each day: Lydia was running a 75 member CSA in North Reading, MA, and I was working at a school garden nonprofit in Cambridge, MA.
As people passionate about healthy food, healthy environments and healthy communities, we saw lots of opportunities to start a project in Lowell that combined our skills and experiences in growing food and teaching others to do the same. Mill City Grows was born when we partnered with the City of Lowell to start the City’s first Community Garden at Rotary Club Park and pair it with a workshop series geared towards supporting gardeners’ success in growing and eating healthy foods. We recruited a small group of passionate and supportive community members to join our Board, and we found a local organization – the YWCA of Lowell – to be our fiscal agent.
By the spring of 2012, the garden was built, filled with neighbors eager to plant and grow, and we were off! There were lots of excitement about the new garden, but also plenty of naysayers who said that Lowell was not the right place to garden, and that everything would be vandalized before anything had time to grow. In that first year of starting the program, we worked extra hard to prove that Lowell was definitely the PERFECT place to start community gardens and build community around the shared values of healthy food and healthy people. Some of the folks who were most ambivalent about the garden have become our biggest champions after seeing the success of the first garden. We now have a network of 6 community gardens across the city, with over 180 families growing healthy food and strong community connections.
Our organization has grown to encompass several other programs that serve our mission to increase food access and resident empowerment. We operate three Urban Farm sites across the city, where we grow 30,000 pounds of organic produce annually. This produce is distributed across the city at our 10 weekly Mobile Market locations. We also donate 20% of our crops to food pantries and hot meal programs. Mill City Grows partners with Lowell Public Schools to support school gardens in 50% of the district schools, as well as hands-on learning for students, teachers and families in the gardens and in the kitchen.
Our goal is to create a holistic continuum of opportunities for residents to become engaged participants in building a robust and equitable local food system. The growth of Mill City Grows is a testament to the literal and figurative hunger of the people of Lowell for fresher, healthier and more culturally appropriate foods. We’ve had the pleasure and honor of getting to work with some amazing community members who inspire us to continue to create gardens, farms, markets, and opportunities for people to come together and share food. Our staff and board and army of volunteers make the work possible, and bring the programs fully to life.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have definitely been some challenges along the way, from dealing with contaminated lands and skeptical neighbors to unpredictable weather and challenges around non-profit funding and fundraising. Urban gardening and farming brings its own host of obstacles.
Please tell us about Mill City Grows.
Mill City Grows is a community-based, non-profit organization that fosters food justice by improving the physical health, economic independence, and environmental sustainability in Lowell. We do this by providing the community increased access to land to grow their own food plus the opportunity to learn about healthy eating and nutrition through a variety of classes and workshops, including Gardener Training Programs, Farm to Table Cooking Classes, and in-school and after-school programs. Each of our education programs is dynamic and hands-on, with all of them taking place on the farm, in the garden, or in the kitchen. We are incredibly proud of and honor our inclusivity, and invite everyone in our community to be a part of our mission, regardless of background, income, religious belief, age, or country of origin. This diversity provides a rich cultural experience for our community of farmers and gardeners, our staff, and our organizational partners.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Francey:
I grew up in New York City, so my early experiences in growing food were always in containers and small spaces. I remember every summer my mom set us kids up to plant watermelons. We would dig in the dirt of the planter boxes, plant the seeds, nurture the vines and watch in wonder as the small green fruits emerged. I don’t think we ever succeeded at growing a fully mature watermelon, but the experience definitely made an impression on me, and rooted my passion for growing food, even in an urban environment
Lydia:
I remember we always cooked and ate together. My mother is from Italy, so food was a big part of our lives, and everything we made was from scratch. I grew up in a fishing village in South Carolina, and fresh seafood was a constant. We would go down to the docks and see what the fresh catch of the day was, and then build a meal around that. My passion for fresh, local food comes from these delicious early experiences of eating seasonally and based on what was being grown and caught in close proximity; and the memories of cooking and eating together as a family has informed my approach to building authentic community connections around sharing food.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.millcitygrows.org
- Phone: (978) 455- 2620
- Email: info@millcitygrows.org
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