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| | | GROW FOOD. EMPOWER YOUTH. BUILD COMMUNITY.
FRESH New London is a small but mighty food justice non-profit. Our mission is to build momentum for food system change through local agriculture, community partnerships, and youth leadership training, in order to dismantle systemic oppression and ensure everyone has access to food with dignity.
July 2024 Newsletter |
| | YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT |
| Summer Youth Program FRESH New London's Summer Youth Program is a leadership development & community engagement program for youth aged 14-20. Participants learn about farming, the food system, and food justice while gaining skills in communication, advocacy, and leadership. Our youth are compensated while they learn, either through a FRESH stipend or via our partnership with New London Youth Affairs. |
| | | | Our Jr. Staff team has grown by 1 this year as we welcome Elvis Hererra as a new crew leader this summer! Each year during this semi-lulled time between programs, our programming team engages in leadership development training that culminates in a Jr. Staff retreat of some kind.
This year, we were able to book an overnight cabin at the Voluntown Peace Trust to grow closer together, form our crews for the summer, play games, and learn how to best support each other this summer.
Some of the tools we use to bolster confidence and leadership in our young people include role playing, improv, journal exercises, and creative game-play.
We just hosted our parent orientation for the summer this past Tuesday, and we hit the ground running for summer YP next Wednesday, the 10th of July!
Chloe Nunez Food justice Educator |
| | | Thank you for 10+ years of hard work, love, and movement-building, Alicia!
Under her leadership over the past decade, FRESH has worked to reclaim blighted and underused urban spaces, address systemic racism and the policies that oppress our community, and increase access to healthy, culturally relevant food with dignity.
We wouldn't be where we are today without her vision and guidance, and we can never thank her enough for all that she's done. We'll miss you, Alicia, and we're excited to see what your next steps will be! |
| | PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN MARKET @ MERCER GARDEN
On June 22nd, FRESH opened our summer market to the community. This market is offered in collaboration with Connecticut College's garden club Sprout Garden. We grow a large variety of vegetables and herbs (and a few fruits), including collards, Caribbean peppers, squash, tomatoes, and more. Come shop for what you enjoy, and pay what works for your family. The market, which is open every Saturday from 10am - 12pm during the growing season, is an integral agricultural and learning program for our summer college interns and our Youth Crew program participants. |
| | | FOOD JUSTICE / AGRICULTURAL RESISTANCE |
| | Fannie Lou Hamer and Farming as Activism
"In October 1967, the renowned Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer welcomed a truck delivering fifty young female pigs and five brown Jersey boars to Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta. A welcome reception, complete with music and dancing, was held in the breeding and boarding barn built by local women." Read more
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| | Food Justice: Growing in Community
With the completion of the terraces on Cottage Street, our job for this space now and in the years to come is to build back our soil structure, nutrients, and microbial life. The work with all the machinery went well and looks great, but also means that the soil is now heavily compacted.
We chose to plant one level with a crop this year. This ensures we have the time to manage it well and see how the crops do in the soil. With help from Sprout, we first broad-forked the beds. This loosens up compacted layers to help water and air and roots reach into the ground. Then we spread organic fertilizer and a thick layer of weed free compost. This adds nutrition and smothers out most of the weed seeds in the native soil. Once this work was done, it was a good time to plant winter squash and watermelon, two crops that have done well there in the past. We are looking forward to sharing this harvest with you!
On the other two levels, we spread some manure and seeded a cover crop of oats and peas. These cover crops will enrich and add organic matter to the soil.
Ellen Rice Farmer |
| | | | St. Francis House 25th Anniversary Celebration!
Julie Garay, Co-Director of Programming at FRESH New London, shared heartfelt memories as we celebrated 25 years of the St. Francis House at Williams Memorial Park. THANK YOU for the years of service and your vision to create a better New London. FRESH is grateful for the work and the partnership which started with Emmett and continued with Anne. Your work will continue to be a blessing to our community for many more years to come. |
| | | On Thursday, June 15, Co-directors, Seanice Austin and Julie Garay, community member and former FRESH Advisory Board member Denise Boyd, and Brad Sheridan from Fiddleheads Food Co-op attended a daylong training about organizing with Building Leadership and Organizing Capacity (BLOC) in Middletown. More than 35 community members, students, and children participated, both in person and virtually. The event took place at the Katal office and the Miller Street Community Farm. The training began with a focus on farming as a business, a discussion that evolved into a deeper conversation about the concept of the Abolitionist Farmer—combining food justice organizing with farming services. Emphasizing the critical role of the USDA in regulating essential resources like air, water, and food, the session highlighted the need for food security to rebuild the social safety net. Participants were called to action to increase BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color) farmers in Connecticut. |
| | Working in Cape Town, South Africa was an exhilarating journey filled with challenges and triumphs. It was a profound period of self-discovery, where I uncovered how my black identity influenced my responses in a global context. When you immerse yourself in a new environment, the lasting impressions often revolve around the individuals you encounter, the inspiring locations you visit, and the food you experience. I hope that FRESH New London will provoke contemplation on food justice and equity, encouraging us all to reassess our roles.
Seanice AustinCo-Director, Administration |
| | | Open to the public!
- "Pay-What-You-Can" Market - EVERY SATURDAY 10am - 12pm, Mercer St.
- July 6th - Work Day (Volunteers Welcomed) - Mercer St. Garden, 10am - 12pm
- July 13th - Summer Youth Kickoff / Work Day - Mercer St. Garden, 9am - 12pm
- July 20th - Medicine Making Workship - Mercer St. Garden, 10am- 12pm
- July 27th - Work Day (Volunteers Welcomed) - McDonald Park Garden, 10am - 12pm
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| FRESH is fiscally sponsored by Third Sector New England, Inc (TSNE).
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Phone: 860-574-9006
P.O. Box 285 New London, CT 06320 |
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