Connecting Farms, Food, and Families in Rhode Island
A Conversation with Margaret DeVos of Southside Community Land Trust
Editor’s Note: In preparing for this issue, I have an even greater appreciation for the nuanced complexity of food systems. Economic forces collide with human needs for survival, creating a spectrum of food offerings ranging from unhealthy to healthy, industrially produced to locally grown. Connecting farmland to communities matters, which is why I was so delighted to talk with Margaret DeVos of Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT). In this interview, DeVos illustrates the challenges to food access in Rhode Island and the importance of farmland conservation and practical distribution solutions to address these challenges. SCLT’s work connects many pieces of the food systems puzzle, helping to support farmers while ensuring that more healthy foods reach the tables of people most in need. – Marissa Latshaw
Marissa Latshaw (ML): Let’s start with the basics. How would you describe the mission of Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT)?
Margaret DeVos (MD): I say it all the time: We help people grow food for their families and for sale to their neighbors. That simple statement captures all the land access work we do for gardeners and farmers, all the market access work, and the food enterprise support we offer. We host three food businesses in our food hub so that the farmers we work with have retail outlets—and so those outlets can get fresh food into the neighborhoods that host our gardens and farms.
We’re building a food system that SCLT supports, but doesn’t drive. We don’t make decisions about what gets planted, where, or what products are offered. We provide information on what’s marketable, but ultimately, people decide. Our role is to help different parts of the food system connect—so that people can control their food system in their own communities.
SCLT staff and Board of Directors members gather at SCLT’s Youth Enterprise Farm in South Providence. Photo courtesy of Southside Community Land Trust
ML: Can you share a story that illustrates this community-first approach?
MD: One of our farmers, Edith Paye, tells this story often. She sells greens at the farmers market—the same kind you could get at ShopRite, the local grocery store. But hers are bigger, fresher, and cost less. If someone comes to her stand with only $2, when the greens cost $4, she’ll still sell them. She wants people to have them. There’s nobody at ShopRite to have that negotiation. But that’s what local business owners do all the time for people and communities.
ML: Which communities are you working in?
MD: We started in South Providence, but we work across Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, Cranston, and beyond. We manage farms in places like Tiverton and Cranston, but we focus our food access work where the need is greatest. Sometimes that’s not where land is available and affordable—so our distribution and production areas don’t always match.
ML: You’re really acting as a connector between farmland and food-insecure neighborhoods.
MD: Exactly. We’re a land trust, so we make farmland available. We’re also a technical service provider, offering training and information. We help farmers reach markets. Before our first food hub in South Providence, farmers had to grow the food and sit at markets all day to sell it. That doesn’t work. It’s not efficient. Now they drop it off, and we handle distribution. We’re building a second food hub in Cranston to better serve farmers there.
Farmer Garmai Mawolo and SCLT’s Kakeena Castro staff the produce giveaway table during the 2023 opening party for SCLT’s Healthy Food Hub in Providence. Photo courtesy of Southside Community Land Trust
ML: What’s the root cause of food insecurity, in your view?
MD: People aren’t food insecure because they lack money. It’s because farms and food businesses have been removed from their communities. It is completely possible for these enterprises to operate in the low-income areas. The reality is that the food economy is tough everywhere because it costs more to grow food than people can afford to spend on it. USDA programs help a lot, but they don’t provide enough support for food and farm businesses serving the lowest-income communities. That’s where SCLT comes in.
ML: How are federal funding cuts impacting your work?
MD: We have been dealing with a $600,000 reduction to our annual budget which impacts programs that served approximately 25,000 Rhode Islanders through food pantries and community meal sites last year while supporting nearly three dozen small family farm businesses. We are anticipating another $600,000 reduction beginning in 2026 as federal programs that haven’t yet been cut just simply aren’t renewed.
ML: How does farmland acquisition work at SCLT?
MD: We operate like a conservation land trust, but we own the land outright. Sometimes we work with the state to place conservation easements on it. In the early days, land in South Providence was affordable—that’s why there are so many gardens there. Even now, compared to the value it delivers, it’s a small price to pay. But there’s no return on investment in community gardening for a profit-motivated developer. That’s why we exist.
A freshly cleared and tilled field at Good Earth Farm in Hope, Rhode Island. As with many old New England farms, the forest had encroached onto the fields over time. Their new forest management plan uses conservation best practices, which balance the goals of expanding crop production and preserving and enhancing the health of forestland on the property to ensure long-term resiliency. Photo courtesy of Southside Community Land Trust
ML: And how is this work funded?
MD: Property purchases are always supported by individual donors. And usually we pay market rates. Those conservation easements are often provided by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and that helps us to afford more land purchases.
ML: Can you tell us about the community gardens in some of your urban areas?
MD: Yes. Community gardens are right in neighborhoods—surrounded by homes, for people who don’t have yards. In a place like Providence, there’s little backyard greenspace. So without a community garden, people wouldn’t have places to grow.
ML: What are some of the unique challenges Rhode Island faces?
MD: We don’t have a large farm sector and agriculture is not seen as central to our economy. But interestingly, Rhode Island has the fastest-growing number of small farms in the country. The land is expensive, but it’s in the middle of a huge and prosperous consumer market that is inclined to purchase local food. In Rhode Island you can grow food and be 15 minutes from a bustling farmers market. That’s a big advantage.
“Our role is to help different parts of the food system connect—so that people can control their food system in their own communities.”
ML: How does your farm-to-community distribution system actually work?
MD: Farmers grow food on the urban and rural farms we manage. They lease the land from us at affordable rates. We help with water, soil quality, and infrastructure development. They bring the food to our food hub, where we check it for quality, store it overnight, then deliver it through programs like VeggieRx, which we run with local health systems.
ML: Can you say more about the VeggieRx program?
MD: Yes. Clinics identify patients facing food insecurity. Our program is not based on chronic disease diagnoses—it’s based on hunger. It has a preventative impact. When 25,000 people get healthy food over an entire season, year after year, you’re reducing both hunger and diet-related disease.
ML: What happens in the non-growing season?
MD: We’re developing new infrastructure now for freezing and value-added processing, so food can be stored and sold year-round. We’re not trying to become a processing company ourselves, but we want farmers to have the tools and training they need to engage in these activities. We spend much of the offseason listening—talking with farmers, apprentices, community members—to understand what’s working and what’s next for our programs.
ML: What advice would you give others who want to transform the food system in their community or state?
MD: When you bring healthy food into a community, it’s like putting healthy food into a body. You don’t always know how or why, but things always get better. The air is cleaner. The streets are calmer. The people are healthier. And there are so many ways to approach it. Someone will always care about one of those outcomes. So you’ll always find a partner.
Don’t be afraid to start.
Margaret DeVos is Executive Director of Southside Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization in Providence, Rhode Island. Her background includes building food economies, nonprofit real estate development and construction, sustainable building technologies, and comprehensive community development in urban neighborhoods. She has served as a senior level public sector and nonprofit manager. She has also succeeded as a small business owner. Formerly, Margaret served as Director of Special Projects at Michigan Department of Human Services, Chief of Staff at Michigan State Housing Development Authority, and Vice President for Real Estate and Development at Mexicantown Community Development Corporation. Margaret holds a BA in Metropolitan Studies from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Marissa Latshaw works with mission-driven organizations to build empathetic and inclusive communication strategies that inspire action. She is the publisher of From the Ground Up and Co-Coordinator of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative, working with partners throughout New England to help bring a more holistic, integrated approach to land conservation. Marissa resides in Connecticut where she’s always up for a walk in the conservation area adjacent to her home.