Our school and community gardens have been improved, prepared, and planted thanks to your ongoing contributions to ACT. We were able to purchase compost to add nutrients to the soil, make improvements to raised bed gardens, and plant an assortment of seedlings in our five garden sites in the North End of Newport. As warm days increase, the gardens are beginning to flourish which we plan to show off in public tours later this season to showcase what is made possible when a community works together to increase access to healthy foods by growing it themselves!

Spring is in full swing and our farmers' stalls are finally bursting with crunchy radishes, fresh greens, baby kale and a variety of other spring favorites. Save the date for May 1st, when the Saturday Summer Market opens at Pell Elementary School, 35 Dexter Street in Newport from 9:00 AM to noon. (The Summer Market will be open one extra hour - 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM - starting on May 15.) Then on May 19th, the Wednesday Summer Market kicks off, running weekly from 2:00 to 6:00 PM on Memorial Boulevard. The opening of the Wednesday Summer Market is a sure sign of warmer days ahead!

Your gift to ACT's 401 Gives Campaign on April 1st will help us put more fresh, locally-grown produce on the tables of Aquidneck Island residents. 2,000 pounds of fresh-picked vegetables were donated from ACT's community gardens last year. With your help, we can double that number in 2021.

Thanks to the generosity of the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation, the URI Cooperative Extension, and the URI Master Gardener Program, Aquidneck Community Table has free vegetable, herb, and flower seed packets to share with our community. ACT will create surprise grab bags of seeds packets to share with customers outside the Aquidneck Growers Market at the Newport Gateway Center on Saturday mornings, 9AM to 12PM, in March.

Help us achieve our vision to connect Newport youth to North End gardens!

Biking between the five gardens that ACT manages within a quarter-mile radius of Miantonomi Park, the Root Riders crew will learn to care for plants from seed to fruit; after harvesting, they will prepare produce in the Pell Elementary cafeteria for sale at that afternoon's farmers market, learning basic sales and business skills while engaging and serving their community. The Root Riders program will empower youth as they learn to grow, harvest, transport, and sell produce in their neighborhoods.

Do you know a high school-aged youth who may be interested in applying for this summer job? Share our flyers (in English and Spanish) and the short interest form.

Hawk & Handsaw Herbals is the glorious lovechild born of the energy, vision, and labor of Kidder Gowen, Horus Khuit, and Kelsey Gowen, who together lease a parcel of land from ACT on a farm retired from development and held in trust by the Aquidneck Land Trust. Opened in early 2018, the Hawk and Handsaw team have turned their quarter acre of rich earth into a lush and increasingly productive corner of the farm where they grow medicinal and specialty culinary herbs using the organic, no-till methods of the expanding regenerative agricultural movement to build soil health, biodiversity and the future of our ecosystem.

This month launches a new monthly feature in our newsletter, in which we will focus on a grower, a food business or an individual who is making a contribution to building a healthier, more sustainable food system on Aquidneck Island.

Thank you Newport Restoration Foundation for featuring ACT in this fun and informative video.

Each month the Newport Restoration Foundation joins a non-profit partner to highlight the expansive history and horticulture of Prescott Farm. While we were not able to gather as a community at Prescott Farm this year, Caitlyn, of the Newport Restoration Foundation, travelled around the island to visit the Aquidneck Growers Market and some of ACT’s school and community gardens.

In case you missed it…

Dan Lederer highlights the Aquidneck Growers Markets and how Aquidneck Community Table has quickly pivoted to meet the challenges of COVID-19 in his story for The Newport Daily News.

Meet some of the local vendors and patrons at the Aquidneck Growers Market. Executive Director, Bevan Linsley shares Aquidneck Community Table’s recent awards, garden and farmers market programs, and a new challenge grant!

A shopping tip to share: vendors now have a bounty of crops and products, so you can arrive later in the market hours, still find what you need and avoid most of the waiting lines at stalls.