Sowing the Seeds of Community with Grace Sliwoski
Grace Sliwoski was born and raised in Worcester, went away for college, and is now raising her family back here in the city. Grace is the Director of Programs for the Regional Environment Council (REC) and sits on the board of Central Mass Grown. The REC is a grassroots environmental and food justice organization. Central Mass Grown is a nonprofit comprised of farmers, buy-local advocates, and community leaders dedicated to raising consumer awareness and increasing the profitability of regional farms.
Grace and Josh talk about food access and food justice (obviously) and how communities can connect through gardens and urban agriculture.
Listen to Public Hearing wherever you get your podcasts and on WICN 90.5FM, Worcester’s NPR affiliate station. And, while we celebrate women all year round, our guests for the month of March are all women who live, influence, and/or impact the City of Worcester, MA. Learn more about our show at PublicHearing.co
Transcript for this episode
Joshua Croke (00:00):
Hello Worcester and the world Josh here, your host of the Public Hearing podcast and radio show. Our show is about exploring compelling futures for our cities and communities. By taking a close look at my home city of Worcester, Massachusetts, the second largest city in New England, we talk with members of the community, residents, artists, small business owners, local activists, and politicians and other folx who care about inclusive, equitable, and prosperous growth. You're listening to Public Hearing available wherever you listen to podcasts and on WICN 90.5 FM on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM. Worcester's only NPR affiliate station.
Joshua Croke (00:40):
Our guest today is Grace Sliwoski. Welcome Grace. And thank you for being here. Instead of reading people's bio's, I like to give folx a chance to say hello and talk a bit about themselves and what you might want to bring into this space. That could be your favorite hobby to your current job, or to any other skills and experiences you think are valuable for people to know, as we're embarking on our conversation about cities and community. I also encourage folx to share some of their social location. For listeners, social location is different aspects of one's identity that have been deemed important by the society in which they live. Here in the U.S., gender, race, and ethnicity, LGBTQ plus identity, ability status, and more matter, and how those identities intersect matter. As Kimberly Crenshaw says, intersectionality is a lens, a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality, or immigrant status. What's often missing is how some people are subject to all of these. And the experience is not just the sum of its parts. So Grace, welcome. And thank you so much for coming on Public Hearing. Tell us a little bit more about you.
Grace Sliwoski (01:58):
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I think in terms of my introduction protocol, I got connected to this opportunity is through my work at the Regional Environmental Council. It's a nonprofit organization in Worcester where I started as an AmeriCorps member and I've worked since 2010. So I'm really passionate about that. It's a big part of who I am. I’m sure I'll talk about it more throughout the podcast, but some other things about me outside of that role, I'm a Worcester native born and bred. I only left for college. I was an art history major. My undergrads were really passionate about art. I worked part-time through college at the Worcester Art Museum and I'm always trying to find opportunities to bring art into my job and into my life. I'm a mom. I have two kids, Theo and Fiona and the cis-gender white woman who is heterosexual and married.
Grace Sliwoski (02:55):
And I think I bring, I have a lot of privilege in almost all aspects of my identity, other than gender. In terms of my physical location in Worcester, I grew up in the Main South community. My parents run a homeless shelter, emergency short term homeless shelter for single men and women and a lay Catholic community that does work for peace and justice. And that's where I grew up. So I had a kind of non-traditional upbringing in how I was raised and how the house sort of works and the neighborhood that I was from, but I currently live in the West side of Worcester, so still connected to the community, but at a different location there. And I'm very excited to be here, excited to talk with you.
Joshua Croke (03:40):
Great. Thank you so much, Grace. And so I want to start with talking about food security and food access, both through the pandemic, but also structurally. And so talking a little bit about SNAP and the Healthy Incentives Program, which you and I connected on earlier for listeners who might be unfamiliar. Could you tell us a little bit about SNAP and the Healthy Incentives Program and how it's supposed to work for folx in need?
Grace Sliwoski (04:07):
Yes, I would be happy to. So SNAP for those who don't know stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, it's a federal program to help folx be able to keep food on the table. It was formerly known as Food Stamps. I'm a former recipient of SNAP, also known as EBT, Electronic Benefits and the way it works is if you're eligible and you apply for the program you get a card it's similar to a debit card and you can use it at grocery stores. There's pretty limited restrictions on what you can use it for as long as it's food, although you can't currently use it for hot prepared food. We're working on some legislation to change that for some more vulnerable populations, which I can talk about later. But the Healthy Incentives Program is a program that works with SNAP it's specific to Massachusetts.
Grace Sliwoski (04:56):
And basically it increases folx benefits through SNAP to be able to purchase local fruits and vegetables from Massachusetts area farms. And this came out of a lot of different farmer's markets across the country have piloted and continue to operate doubling programs for SNAP users. And so the REC did that when we first opened our farmer's market in Main South, anyone who made a transaction with SNAP got 50% off, and the idea is this is a way to make the price of local food more accessible for low income folx. And it's also a way to encourage farmers to invest in communities where maybe they wouldn't see the market opportunity they need for their business. So the Healthy Incentives Program is a way to scale that up by integrating that benefit directly into the EBT card. So the way it works is if you use your EBT card at a farmer's market, a farm stand or through a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture will automatically have your purchase refunded up to $80, depending on household size, single folx get 40 it's an instant rebate program.
Grace Sliwoski (06:07):
The farms, farmer's markets, and CSA’s do you have to register with the state to participate. And it's only for fruits and vegetables, it's also limited to produce. So this is really great because 80 additional dollars can make a big difference in a family's budget of something like 75% of the customers who shop at REC markets are SNAP and HIP users. And it's also really great for the Massachusetts farming economy. So the money that's spent through HIP gets reinvested locally. I've been to a lot of legislative conversations about this where farmers have talked about this program, really saving and stabilizing generation old farming businesses, and also the farmers commitments to using the income that they're generating from this program to reinvest in their farms with local materials and local labor which is really great.
Grace Sliwoski (07:00):
I cannot speak highly enough about this program. I think it's just a triple bottom line win for everyone involved, but some kind of unique challenges that it has is first of all getting the word out for folx to know that it is an option that they have as a benefit they can use. Second of all, for folx to be able to get to spaces where they can use the benefit. So in order to use the benefit, you have to be able to get to a farmer's market, a farm or a farm stand, which often have, you know, more limited hours, more limited locations. It's not how people maybe are used to shopping. And then the third challenge is the program benefit the way it's released is it expires each month and it's refund based. So you have to still have some SNAP on your card in order to spend your HIP. And if you can't get to a farmer's market and the month of March, for example, when the pandemic hit you loose that money. It doesn't roll over into April. So users lose it every month. And so those are all different challenges just in terms of implementation that the REC is really interested in trying to overcome and figuring out creative ways to reduce those barriers.
Joshua Croke (08:12):
Yeah because as you said, like $80 a month in spending on produce is significant for a family that's a good amount of produce.
Grace Sliwoski (08:22):
Oh yeah. So we offer, we started offering in the spring offering what we call Combo Bags for $20 because HIP is in 40, 60 or $80 increments. And so folx want to max it out. They don't want to leave any money on the table, so you can either get 20 all veggie 20 all fruit or a 20 mixed fruit and veggie bag that's pre-set and ready to go. And it's like a full bag and it is a full, reusable tote bag that folx can get. And so I think if you're not the person who does the grocery shopping in your household, it might be hard to visualize how much $80 worth of produce is, but you are totally right it’s a lot.
Joshua Croke (08:57):
Right. And so actually one of our recent guests on the show is Echo Louissaint from Worcester Community Free Fridge. And was talking about just like food access, but also one of the things that, and I'm really interested in actually a couple of years ago was in Atlanta, Georgia for a Smart Cities expo where I met the founder of a organization called Gooder Co, which is a food technology business that helps places like the Atlanta airport redistribute, the food surplus that they don't use at the end of the day that usually gets thrown out. And it's not actually food waste, it's just food surplus and then Gooder takes it, packages it, redistributes it to the community from like this like food surplus stock. So I'm like really fascinated in like how food moves about a community. Cause that's often one of the biggest challenges at getting people, the food, I feel like there are so many people who are like, Oh, there's not enough food to feed people. And it's like, really it's about distribution and like how that food is moved.
Grace Sliwoski (10:09):
Yeah. I know it's, it's a hundred percent, well, it's not a hundred percent, but a lot of it is logistics. And I'm so glad you got to talk to Echo she's on my list of women to meet. But the free fridges as an intervention is so great and helpful for programs like ours because we have surplus food at the end of the week with a Mobile Farmer's Market, not a huge quantity, but it's all highly perishable. And one of the challenges in terms of donating it is that the folx that you're donating to you have to really be prepped to receive it. So I know that that's from both sides of the equation, cause my parents received donated food for the shelter. And if you get an unexpected donation of highly perishable food, that can be really challenging to be able to distribute it, to be able to store it properly.
Grace Sliwoski (10:54):
And we don't want to put a burden on the folx who are doing that emergency food work. So having an option like the free fridges where it's great, you know, at any point at the end of the shift, if we have, you know, a half a crate full of lettuce left over, we're not asking any extra work of anyone to be able to put it in the fridge. So I think that's just such a good and kind of creative solution. And another thing you just brought to mind the conversation that I had earlier this spring, is there's a Boston-based organization called Lovin’ Spoonfuls and they are doing research about coming into Worcester, but really what their organization does is they just focus on the transportation piece of making connections for food surplus. For grocery stores, distributors, you know, institutions, big places, and then looking at a network of food service providers and really analyzing what the needs are and what's culturally appropriate and what will be helpful and sort of figuring it out all out in some kind of a way that I don't understand with a fleet of trucks and moving that food around.
Grace Sliwoski (11:57):
So they had a conversation with me about their work and about trying to come to Worcester and it was really exciting. And I think having folx who are able to kind of think, well, both practically and creatively, it's what we need to really sustainably address food insecurity in our communities.
Joshua Croke (12:15):
Absolutely. And in my work, I really focus on helping communities connect and ideate and brainstorm solutions to community and resident identified challenges. And so this is something that comes up frequently is access to food, food security. But also you mentioned the challenges of getting folx transported to, or like getting to these different food locations. And I know that a lot of parts of Worcester are considered food deserts where you don't have grocery stores or you know, places with readily accessible food in certain parts of the city. And there are, you know, we could talk about challenges with public transportation and access to that. And we've also on the show, talked about the free WRTA Initiative that's really looking at, you know, providing free and accessible public transportation to folx in our community. But there's challenges there because of long routes, like what takes you six minutes to drive in a car, takes you 40 minutes on a bus route, right. Depending on where you are and where you're going. And so you mentioned the mobile food work that REC does so, I'd love to hear more about that and how you approach getting into community, to providing access to food resources.
Grace Sliwoski (13:39):
Yeah. So the Mobile Farmer's Market Program the REC has been running this initiative since 2012. We were one of the first mobile markets in the Northeast, but now there's mobile markets all across the country. And basically the theory behind it is really what you described. So trying to solve some of the barriers to food access, particularly around proximity and access by moving the food to where the people need it the most. And in terms of how we decide where the mobile market should go. When we first started the program, we were really trying to convince folx to partner with us and to let us come and set up this program and build connections with the community. And now that I think interest in food access and local food has grown and we've built some trust with the mobile market, we are in a better position to be a little bit more thoughtful as we evaluate who we're partnering with and where we're going.
Grace Sliwoski (14:32):
And we consider a number of different factors. So we always want to make sure that we're going to communities where we're serving folx who have demonstrated barriers to food access and looked to be serving at least 50% of our customers of SNAP users. So I think that's an important indicator for us. If we're serving less than 50%, that may indicate this as a good community for a forum to come in and set up a farmer's market. And that could be a great single opportunity and it doesn't need kind of this grant funded intervention. And then we're also looking around other factors that might limit access. So we work a lot with Worcester Housing Authority and particularly with their properties that serve seniors where they might have more barriers to being able to get out and go to the grocery store than other folx.
Grace Sliwoski (15:20):
A couple of years ago, we expanded to start serving communities in Webster and South Bridge and how we made the decision to go there specifically is we worked with the Division of Public Health, and we looked at the data around SNAP participation, but also the SNAP gap, which is folx who are eligible for SNAP, but not currently enrolled. And then really importantly, as a counterpoint, we looked at the existing farming economy. So were there already farms that accepted HIP that are in different communities where we would be better served by supporting those farms to expand their business, supporting them with outreach. You know, we're a nonprofit organization but I'm also on the board of Central Mass Grown, so we don't want to put ourselves in competition with producers. We don't actually grow most of the food we sell. We sourced through the Worcester Regional Food Hub.
Grace Sliwoski (16:07):
So it is locally produced. But we recognize that by purchasing and wholesale, it's not as good of a market opportunity for the farmers as direct retail. So we want to support them at that whenever they can. And then the last piece is we're looking for sites that really want to partner deeply with us. And so thinking beyond the mobile market, are there other opportunities for community building? Is this a location that might be a good site for a community garden? Could we overlay other resources when the Mobile Market is there. And we have a really great partners HIP with UMass Extension where they've come to do live cooking demos and recipe giveaways. And they've overlaid that with the Mobile Market. So I think those are always of a lot of interest and value to us as we're kind of thinking through where the Mobile Market will go.
Joshua Croke (16:54):
And so I want to talk about urban agriculture and like community gardens in a second, but also what does life look like for farmers right now in our communities considering the pandemic and, you know, just the, you know, I'm not anywhere close to being a farmer, so like climate and like all of these considerations you know, what is the life of farmers look like right now?
Grace Sliwoski (17:18):
Yeah. Well, I will put a disclaimer out and say, I am not a farmer. So I'm connected to farmers in different ways and I'll share what I've heard through those conversations, but the question would be best answered by folx are full-time growers. What I heard in the spring is the pandemic was incredibly difficult for farmers. So a lot of farmers who have relationships selling produce to institutions through aggregators like the Local Food Hub also selling to restaurants, you know, I spoke a lot with when from , Maker to Main that effect on the restaurant industry was really felt by producers as well. And then there are also a lot of challenges just around the uncertainties presented in the spring, because farming is a business where you plan really far ahead. So you purchase your seeds in the winter for your growing and business plan.
Grace Sliwoski (18:12):
And there's a lot of trust and faith in the business model that you'll make the sales that the customers will come through. And so to have something so disruptive in the spring time, there was a lot of fear and anxiety. We were not sure what the impact would be on our farmer's markets. We thought that we might see an uptick in interest from customers coming because people were really looking for outdoor shopping opportunities. People had, you know, a lot of people were interested in gardening last spring, which seems to be continuing. But we also saw reduced participation from farms because they were really concerned about what the restrictions would be from the state in order to operate their business. A lot of farms switched to CSA’s, or they found other pivots. That seems to be a little bit more financially viable and prudent for the time being.
Grace Sliwoski (19:03):
We were really, really fortunate at the REC. We got some support from Harvard Pilgrim Foundation and also from Worcester Together to make investments in a lot of the infrastructure to keep them markets safe. So things like plexiglass and dividers for lines, but also additional staff. We had to have twice as many staff last season to run the markets in compliance with their recommendations from the state for safety. And the only reason we were able to do that is because we could access grants as a nonprofit. So, you know, I can see how that would not be feasible for a family business or a farm. I think, again, this is where the Healthy Incentives Program and I'll come back to that at every possible point, but this can be a great opportunity, both for consumers and for farmers with the appropriate support, to be able to implement it, to be able to keep those retail opportunities, going, to be able to get the word out to communities to get there. But yeah, it was a really challenging year. And really hoping 2021 will be a little bit easier on everyone.
Joshua Croke (20:09):
Definitely. And I'm sending good vibes out there to all the growers and farmers in our communities and in our spaces. And if someone wants to come on the show who is a farmer and is experiencing some of this stuff we'd love to have your voice represented here in this space. And so talking about urban farming, something that I also think, and me from like the techie futurist side of my passion, I love talking about like hydroponic farming and like you know, how converting shipping containers into like grow facilities for like lettuce and all this stuff is like really, really amazing, but also like educating folx in our communities as to how they can grow and produce their own, you know, their own food. My partner's dad, another shout out to Tony, he gets a lot of those on this show. My partner's dad and his mom, Susan, they have a garden that they really tend to and care for. And we get a lot of food over the course of a season from that market tomatoes, lettuce, garlic, like, et cetera, et cetera. So I know that REC also does like education around food, like growing food and like creating community gardens. So talk to me a little bit about that and the opportunity there. And I'll also add the sub-note of what is the Worcester Urban Agricultural Ordinance.
Grace Sliwoski (21:34):
Yes. Okay. Well, I will start out by saying I have a confession to make. I think a lot of people are, you know, about me, but I do not have a home garden, even though I work for the REC. I'm hoping to build one this year. But part of the reason I don't have one is because anytime you meet a gardener, they will give you vegetables. Just like your partner's parents do. I get gifted vegetables all the time. It is just amazing. It's such a nice experience. Yeah, I think that is something really lovely about growing food. So I can kind of explain the work that the REC does to support folx growing food in the city and talk about a few interesting projects that are happening and also how the urban agriculture ordinance plays into all that. For all of you who are planning and zoning geeks out there.
Grace Sliwoski (22:25):
So the REC has been supporting folx to grow food since 1993, which was when our community gardens program was founded. And we still operate that program. And the way it works is if folx register with the REC to be a part of the community gardens network, we will work with the city of Worcester to provide delivered compost to your garden site every year. And we will provide free seedlings every year for your garden. And then we're also available for technical support, as you're thinking about things like garden expansions, how your is going to operate. And we provide a little bit of additional work for gardens and schools that are thinking about gardens as educational opportunities. And really this program I would say is probably the most grassroots of all the work we do. And we often are just a facilitator for connections of people doing cool stuff around growing in the city.
Grace Sliwoski (23:18):
You don't own any land as an organization. You know, we're not property managers but we have some experience and support and resources that we can provide. And the types of gardens that we support in the network include school gardens, as I mentioned. So there's twenty-five gardens in Worcester public schools, early childhood centers and adult learning centers. And those are all kind of an educational garden space. A lot of them intentionally are growing lots of different things to show different growing techniques, not as focused on, you know, big scale production. We're really working this year to bring more perennial and pollinator plants to those spaces and think about the role they serve from an environmental and soil conservation perspective. The second type is gardens that are connected to an organization or an institution. And so Seven Hills Foundation, for example, has horticultural therapy, gardens, and a number of their sites that we partner with.
Grace Sliwoski (24:14):
And so folx in the day program will come out and grow in the garden. They're also working to build in some more garden opportunities for folx in the workforce development program. And we worked with them last summer to build a garden at Coe’s Pond by the playground behind Stern's Tavern. And that garden is eventually going to source some things that will go into smoothies in the cafe right next to the playground. So participants in Seven Hills will grow that stuff. They'll make the smoothies, they can sell them to family like me who go to that playground. It should be really lovely. Then there's kind of traditional community neighborhood gardens, and that might be what folx think of when you think of a community garden, which is the piece of land, where folx who don't have space to grow in their own home, come together and they share the land to be able to grow food for themselves.
Grace Sliwoski (25:00):
And there's a number of gardens connected to REC that we support that do that. And then the fourth category, which I think is really cool and groundbreaking kind of like you were getting excited about the hydroponics is urban farms. And so folx might not know that we have a number of urban farming sites in Worcester, and these are larger scale sites where the focus is really growing for production and growing for markets. And the largest of those is the Youth Grow Farm, which I would strongly encourage anyone listening to come visit where at 63 Oread Street on our website, we've got some volunteer hours they're really limited right now posted so you can sign up, but if you don't see a time that works for you, send me an email and would love to host you. And that's about three quarters of an acre.
Grace Sliwoski (25:47):
We had a 65 foot high tunnel, and that is farmed by volunteers, but also by young people in our community who were employed by the Youth Grow Program and the produce they grow goes a portion to their families and a portion is sold on the Mobile Market. So those are just a few different examples of really interesting growing projects happening in Worcester. There are over 60 registered gardens connected with REC in this network, and there are more gardens and projects happening that are connected with us as well. Any folx who are involved in the gardening projects, if you're not aware of REC, I would say, please reach out and all the resources we provide are free. We would love to connect. And then the Urban Agricultural Zoning Ordinance is a piece of zoning ordinance that was passed through a really collaborative effort with the Worcester Food Policy Council with different folx growing in the city and folx in the city of Worcester.
Grace Sliwoski (26:41):
And basically it is allowing people the right to conduct these different activities within the city. And so something I didn't realize until I started doing more work with the zoning ordinance is that if something is not written into the zoning ordinance, it's defacto not allowed. So you need to be written into the zoning ordinance to have what you're doing, be protected. So a lot of our urban agriculture zoning ordinance was actually protecting things that already existed. Just say that people do have the right to farm in different areas of our city that they have the right to establish community gardens. And then for a few different zoning areas of our city you still have the right to do it, but you have to apply for a special permit. And so if folx have questions in terms of where they live, if they need to apply for a permit for example, to start a community garden I would have encouraged them to both reach out to us at REC and or directly to the planning department in the city of Worcester.
Grace Sliwoski (27:37):
They're very supportive. They're happy to answer questions. The other thing the zoning ordinance permits, which is really cool it's for folx to set up farm stands. So if you, for example, want to set up a community garden or a backyard farming project. And on Thursday nights, you want to open up a farm stand on your property so that folx in the neighborhood can take part in the harvest so that you don't have to figure out what to do with 50 pounds of zucchinis. You can do that. You're protected to do that in Worcester and there's information on zoning ordinance in terms of how to do it of stuff around sort of when you're setting up, making sure you're safe in the street. And that is very cool. The last thing I would say, and I'm like, we'll pause and allow you to ask questions too, is related to growing in the city.
Grace Sliwoski (28:27):
Just a really important thing to be mindful of is thinking about the safety of your soil. And so urban soil is often contaminated with lead from lead paint. And if you grow in contaminated soil, especially root crops that can get into the food, it's not safe for folx to consume particularly toddlers and elderly folx. And that's why the composting program in the city is so important because if you bring in compost city of Worcester and is tested and is clean, and if you're growing in a site where you're concerned that there might be contamination and I'm default assume that there is, you can reach out to the REC or Worcester County Conservation District, and we'll help you to test the soil. If it is contaminated, we would recommend that you do container growing. So you can put down a barrier, you can build raised beds, you can bring in clean, complex from the city, and that's the safest way to do it. It's just really important to be aware of and be thoughtful about when folx are starting growing projects in urban environments,
Joshua Croke (29:22):
That is extremely helpful. And again, me not being someone who has that like the green fingers or whatever folx say about growing. That is something I would never have thought about. So that's super, super important for folx listening. And also it brings me so much joy walking by spaces, where there are community gardens in any city or community. Really like seeing that gathering of people from different households in these community gardens, like building that community. And I'm forgetting exactly what city this is, I think somewhere in the South, but there was a project to turn pavement into community gardens. So they had this whole organization that would go and like tear up old parking lots. And as a like pedestrian, huge pedestrian mobility advocate, the more I see parking lots destroyed for green space and for community space, I am so here for it. So is that, is that an opportunity in Worcester? Like, I feel like there are so many, mostly vacant lots while also people complain about parking, but a lot of vacant parking spaces in various neighborhoods and communities and how might we explore turning those into green community garden spaces?
Grace Sliwoski (30:56):
Yes, it is definitely an opportunity. I will take this moment to shout out my sister-in-law who is trying to start an urban flower farm on a parking lot. It's part of her property where she and my brother and their kids live. And they're really thinking about how to be creative of like, how can we grow? We need to tear up the cement. So the short answer to that is, yeah, I think the longer answer is these projects are always most successful when they start from the community of folx who want to grow. And so we frequently, not super frequently, but we will periodically get folx who will contact the REC and there'll be like, I've identified a lot for you to place a garden. And I always want to have gentle conversations with folx that gardens are living things and they need people to garden there.
Grace Sliwoski (31:46):
And so my first question will be great. Do you want a garden in there? So I think whenever these enterprises can start with or include in the very early foundations of being creative, a community of folx who are interested in growing, they're going to be the most successful. And then identifying a site is also hugely important. So it is possible to set up gardens on cement and pavement. I've done a little bit of research into it. I think one of the concerns you have to think through is just the heat staying in the pavement can dry out the beds a little bit more quickly. I've seen some examples in other communities where they've put some additional barriers in the bottom of the raised bed, like extra cardboard things there to help mitigate that. And then the other piece would just be making sure there's a water source because raised beds already dry out more quickly than growing in the ground.
Grace Sliwoski (32:36):
And then if you've also got a non porous black surface underneath heating them up, you're going to really want to make sure you've got a sustainable water source for the site. If those problems can be solved, then it's pretty straightforward to get a garden project set up. One of the small silver linings of the pandemic is we had to shift 70% of the youth grow program to be virtual. So we had a very small team of youth who were working in person to keep the farm operating. And then we had about 30 young people who are doing a virtual farming program, which was kind of a head-scratcher for us, cause they were like, how do you farm virtually almost all the youth in our program live in apartments? What is this going to look like? But the Youth Care team was incredibly creative and resilient and they worked over the summer to build growing setups for each and every youth participating in the virtual program.
Grace Sliwoski (33:33):
And so they developed a really lightweight, inexpensive raised bed that we could build on our site and transport to youth apartments. It's a little bit less durable than the type we usually build, but it was less expensive and it was easy to pop up and set up. The other thing they did for locations where raised beds weren't possible because the property owner or other concerns is they provided the youth with grow bags. And we had really good results with that. They're just basically like a bag made of landscaping fabric that you fill with dirt. And each bag has maybe enough for like a large tomato plant or a couple of smaller plants. And so we gave them a set up of bags to move those around, put them wherever you like. And then for a very small number of youth who couldn't do either of those things, we worked to set up indoor growing setups. So you can be super creative. Of course, as you mentioned before, there's also, you know, hydroponic growing and thinking about some of the more higher tech retrofits you can do. I will say, that's not our area of expertise. We've done a little bit of supportive hydroponic growing projects. And we're so excited about the Together We Eat farm coming at the Boys and Girls Club, but really the range of options to be able to grow food does make it possible to grow food anywhere you really can. So that was a longer way of saying yes.
Joshua Croke (34:47):
No. And I'm all excited about the farm that I most likely will not grow and it's this season at my apartment, but no, I honestly have been starting like some more like landscaping work outside of my apartment, which people are like, you're a renter. Like, why are you putting all this work into your yard? Like, isn't that the landlord Lord's responsibility? And it's like, yes, and it's my space, right? It's like where I live. It's like what I enjoy being out in that space. There's a great opportunity for building community by having outdoor space for folx to gather for neighborhood, you know, folx to me and things like that. But I am like so interested in all of this. So I have to connect with the REC more regularly now is what I'm hearing to continue to fill my mind with ideas and motivation for growing and doing some of my own farming, but also encouraging folx and getting to more farmer's markets and things. So do you see farmer's markets really kind of coming back to that the weather's getting nicer, vaccines are being rolled out and, how folx can, you know, start getting back to those spaces to purchase their food.
Grace Sliwoski (36:05):
Yeah, absolutely. So for folx looking to purchase locally right now I would highly recommend checking out some of the brick and mortar options in Worcester for local food including Maker to Main and the Worcester Public Market. Stillman's Farms is located there and they do accept HIP, So that's a great option. For our program because we serve so many folx who are really vulnerable. We made the decision to switch in January to a pre-order pickup model called HIP To Go, you can check it out on our website. You do not have to be a SNAP user to order. Basically the way it works is you have up until Sunday night to place your order on our online store. And then you can choose from four different pickup locations and the time that works best for your schedule and it's a drive up and our staff will be there.
Grace Sliwoski (36:52):
Your produce is pre-bagged, you can pop it in the car. I think it's a good solution for workaround, but it's terrible for community building. So we're really excited to reopen more of what I would call traditional farmer's markets. And we will do that in June. It's interesting cause for the New England growing season, there's actually a lot of local product available in the winter. And interesting growing projects that are happening but early spring and like kind of late spring is the least productive time for local produce in New England. So you'll notice when you go to the farmer's markets in June, you might not see a huge variety of produce. I would say don't be discouraged. Don't give up, continue to shop. The variety of bounty will just increase by the time you get to August, the farms will all have a ton. For our farmer's markets,
Grace Sliwoski (37:39):
we operate the Beaverbrook Farmer's Market, which runs on Mondays and Fridays in June through October 9 to 12. And we'll start in the middle of June and we'll post on Facebook, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. We also operate the University Park Farm Stand, which is across the street from Clark. And that runs on Saturdays from 9 to 12. And that location is where we've had some of the best success with community programming. Thanks in large part to a really great partnership with the Main South CDC. Who's really invested in that park and helped us to bring yoga and Zumba and playgroups there. And we're really hoping to bring as much of that back as possible this year as we can do safely. And then our Mobile Markets will resume in June as well. And so we'll go to 10 different Worcester locations, Tuesday through Thursday, and we'll start serving Webster in July.
Grace Sliwoski (38:33):
So between all of those locations, REC runs markets six days a week by the middle of June, the only day we don't have a market running is Sunday. And again, you can go to Maker to Main, you can go to the Public Market. So I think between all of those options, there's really no excuses not to purchase local food this summer. And I would strongly encourage folx to get out and explore them all and pick the one that works best for you. Get to know your farmers. You also might find when you go that you're connecting more with the folx who are vending there and you learn that they do offer a CSA or that they have a farm stand at the farm property itself. And maybe that becomes a better option for you. So always a good opportunity to build those relationships and shake the hand of the person who grew your food and then immediately hands sanitize.
Joshua Croke (39:18):
Yeah, exactly. Well, and so my designer mind just like jumped to do we have a designed, like map of Worcester of where you can go for farmer's markets and also like I almost want like a process list of like how to collect and purchase local food, whether it's produce whether it's meat, whether whatever it is, you know, in a way that's like, here are all the options and this is what you could do for the week. You know, my partner and I do a lot of like meal planning and I want to do more and more to support local food. And sometimes it's just accessing like where to get it, what the process is. Can you buy and like pick up, do you have to like plan to go during a day? Like, is there like a beautiful, like designed map of all of those kinds of food resources that are locally grown or locally you know, sold through farmer's markets and things like that. And if not, this might be like an invitation for some collaboration to put something together.
Grace Sliwoski (40:24):
Yeah. So I would say there are a number of maps and if the risk of offending some important and valued partners, they're not beautiful. They're, they're more functional GIS maps. So you can go onto the Mass Department of Agriculture website and also the DTA website. They both have maps to find your farmer's market. And then the Division of Public Health in Worcester is working on a food resource, GIS Mapping Project. I think all three of those are good tools, but they're not totally meeting what you're talking about in terms of something that's really accessible that folx can quickly scan, maybe look at on their phone. So I would love to have that conversation. I think there's a lot of folx in the farming community, the Worcester Regional Food Hub that would love to be at the table too. And if you are up for convening it, I will be there.
Joshua Croke (41:14):
Oh, that sounds great. I will put it on my to-do list because it would selfishly benefit me. But I think also a lot of other folx in the community. So in our last like 10, 15 minutes here we've talked a bit about like the vaccine and like the pandemic and like some you know, the challenges related to that. And I always, when talking about food, it's, you're having a conversation about public health as well. Right. and so I want to talk about COVID vaccine equity a little bit. But something else that you shared with me that you're passionate about you know, is that, and, you know, providing like health equity and vaccine equity, but first I want to talk a little bit about the Community Health Improvement Plan, also known as the CHIP for listeners who aren't familiar with the plan, what is it and what is it hoping to achieve?
Grace Sliwoski (42:09):
Yeah, so the city of Worcester and six of the surrounding towns who I can't specifically name, cause I'm sure I'll get one wrong have a process that's supported by some of the large medical institutions in the community who provide funding for it including UMass Memorial to create a community driven community health improvement plan. And that process is held and managed by an organization called the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester. And I'm a member of the steering committee of that organization, which does really great work. And the way the process works is that CHIP is a, multi-year kind of ambitious large-scale community plan to address the public health needs of the community. And it's informed by something called the CHA, which is the Community Health Assessment. And because both of these things take a lot of work and community input to create.
Grace Sliwoski (43:09):
We're kind of always in the process of either creating a CHIP or doing a CHA and where we are right now is in the final stages of finalizing the new community health improvement plan or CHIP. And when I spoke to you before our interview, I brought up that one of the challenges with the new CHIP is the CHA was conducted pre pandemic. So there was a really great community of folx who are convened by the coalition who came together to do a root cause analysis of, you know, the most pressing concerns around public health. And that was informed by a number of community conversations with different stakeholder groups, really focusing on some of the communities who have the poorest health outcomes because of some of the intersections you talked about earlier in the show of structural racism, poverty, sexism and so really looking at what are the themes that were coming out in those conversations.
Grace Sliwoski (44:05):
And what's some of, you know, looking upstream of how we can address them. And that group came up with four priority areas to focus on in the new CHIP with a recognition that there's other important work for public health that was already happening by different groups that the CHIP wanted to support and kind of endorse, but not duplicate resources and not, you know, create more groups necessarily. And that didn't include COVID cause COVID hadn't happened yet. So this year I was selected to be a member of the CHIP Cohort Leadership Team is a new approach straight in the CHIP. So they ask community members to apply if they want to be part of the process. The cohort is amazing. It includes some really great folx in the community Rush Frazier, chaise, and Medina different lots of different folx in the public health sphere and the community building sphere coming together to help work on this new CHIP.
Grace Sliwoski (45:02):
And I was selected in the focus area to look at long-term pandemic response. And so we convened some conversations in the fall through Zoom and Google Meets and other platforms to talk to folx about the impacts of the pandemic. And really what we heard is that folx were struggling with like urgent, basic needs, housing, food security, jobs, and that some of the things we thought would come out more around remote education and childcare were also incredibly pressing, but one of the themes that came out of someone's like, I can't even think about how my child is performing for remote education, because I don't know where the next meal will come from, or because I'm worried my housing isn't stable or secure. And so the new CHIP that was proposed, it went out for community back in January, and it was presented at the annual meeting in March, but it includes some really radical and great commitments to focusing on addressing those barriers.
Grace Sliwoski (46:03):
So bringing in universal public transportation, universal free childcare, looking at legislation around housing equity, around food access, thinking about how can we make systematic training for cultural humility and empathetic listening and care for healthcare providers to reduce some of the barriers that folx are experiencing when they're trying to access care. And then also strategies around mobilizing services. So thinking about, you know, mental health, physical screenings, food services, how do we bring those to meet folx where they're at? How do we embed them and trusted spaces moving them throughout the community? So I'm really, really proud of the plan that was developed. I'm so grateful for all the folx who are participating and I'm going to be the co-convener for the strategy working group on mobilizing services, which is going to meet in June and continue to meet for several years. And so if you're interested in being a part of that working group, it's open to the public, anyone can participate. My email is grace@recworcester.org. I'm sure you'll post it somehow with this podcast. But you can feel free to reach out to me to get involved, or you can connect with Casey Burns, who's the executive director of the Coalition for Healthy Greater Worcester. And she can share about how to get more broadly engaged with a CHIP overall or some of the different priority areas.
Joshua Croke (47:25):
Great. And I love coalitions and the Coalition for Healthy Greater Worcester is doing a lot of work. I facilitate the Worcester Education Equity Round Table, which is a coalition for educational equity in our communities and my particular passion as a facilitator and as a designer who uses like an equity centered community led design process for root cause analysis, identifying opportunities to build solutions to challenges that were curated, developed and led by members of the community most impacted by the issues that we're creating and exploring. I'm so fascinated at the opportunity to continue to connect and intersect coalition work, to amplify the efforts of all of these groups. So it's great to hear that this work is ongoing and has a strong commitment from, from the community. And so how does that work or really just having the public health conversation intersect with COVID vaccine equity, which is such an important topic for our time right now?
Grace Sliwoski (48:31):
Yeah, well, I think it relates in a number of ways. And one of them I would say is really thinking about trust and the trust that's required for implementing a massive vaccine rollout in a way that's equitable and understanding that folx need to hear the information in ways they can literally understand. So in ways that are translated, but also from people they trust and to be in spaces that feel safe. And so the city of Worcester and Dr Castillo's office, I think has done some really amazing work bringing vaccine equity clinics that are focusing their outreach on communities of color who, as we all know, have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. And they're working in partnership with some great community groups, like Worcester Interfaith to do outreach to those communities and to bring vaccine clinics to different locations geographically, and also thinking again about spaces that will feel safe and trusting.
Grace Sliwoski (49:30):
But it is not enough. I think many of us have experienced or at least I have experienced frustration over the pace of the vaccine rollout. And especially in the earlier days, seeing Massachusetts kind of stack up so poorly against the rest of the country in terms of how quickly vaccines were getting out. I think we saw a repeat of what happened with COVID testing, where information around how to sign up for a vaccine was not consistent, not easily accessible. And often it felt like you needed someone to tell you, you need to hook up to know how to make this happen. And so there's a really great effort that I became connected to through a friend of mine from high school, which is Mass COVID Vaccine Help. Their website is masscovidvaccinehelp.com. And it was started by a volunteer.
Grace Sliwoski (50:23):
A woman who I believe was a software developer on parental leave who saw how poorly the rollout was going and wanting to help. And it's grown to this coalition, it's all volunteer based and they work to help folx get vaccine appointments. And the approach they use is explicitly equity-focused. So if you need help getting a vaccine appointment, you can sign up on the website, either with a full form that provides all the information they need, or a very short form. If you need a phone intake, if you want support for that. And then there's a points based system where depending on folx' identity, their racial identity, where they fall in priority groups, where they are geographically they'll move to a different point in the line. And then they've got this great network of volunteers who specialize in booking appointments. And so one of the things that I found out, it's like a lot of the different pharmacies released their appointments at midnight.
Grace Sliwoski (51:17):
And so you're not up at midnight on a computer. If you check in at six, the next morning, they'll all be gone. Well through Mass COVID Vaccine Help, there are volunteers who will be staying up at midnight, working on that list, signing up for folx. They'll also take into consideration, you know, geographic accessibility. They have an explicit commitment to not sign up folx from the less impacted areas in the more impacted areas. So they won't facilitate, you know, for example, folx coming from Boston to Worcester, or they want Worcester based folx to get the Worcester vaccine. And then they also have other volunteer opportunities to help with outreach, which is what I signed up for. And so they have informational flyers. If you want to refer someone to be able to sign up, to get help getting a vaccine or community organizations, to be able to spread the word.
Grace Sliwoski (52:05):
I just made a connection yesterday with Southeast Asian Coalition to help with translating the flyer into Vietnamese. They had Chinese, but they didn't have the Vietnamese opportunities. So they immediately said yes, because they're just the best. And I think that this is another tool in the toolbox, just in terms of helping people to get vaccines quickly and helping people to be able to get vaccines, at least in geographically accessible spaces. Particularly thinking about more doses, going to pharmacies Biden just announced, he's expanding the eligible pharmacies and increasing the amount that will go to pharmacies. One of the good things about living in this city is most neighborhoods in Worcester, you can get to a CVS, you can get to a pharmacy, but if you can't navigate the online sign up that doesn't help you. And so that's where this volunteer effort can help with kind of that work-around solution.
Grace Sliwoski (52:58):
And I know when we talked before you had brought up, really these kinds of solutions are so great and creative, but also frustrating because why are they needed? And I really agree with that. And I think when, you know, when you think of the analogy of the upstream who's the person who's running up the river to find out what's going on. And then who are the people who are staying, pulling people out of the river, who are being pushed in. And this feels like a both and kind of answer where we've got to do this direct work right now. And we have to figure out what are the causes of these inequities? Why, is this problem exist in the first place?
Joshua Croke (53:36):
Absolutely. Yeah. And we only have about two minutes left, but you know, I'm so interested in like how we can explore, like what needs to change in our communities so that in order to ensure equity, we don't have to rely on free labor. Right. And like that's like volunteering and volunteerism is such a powerful thing. And it's something I'm very passionate about. It's that? Yes. And right of this seems to be such like a fruitful and equitable effort that this group is doing. And to think that if that model was applied on like the statewide funded scale, what this could look like and where we might be with, you know, the rollout of vaccines and really looking at equity. So that's a good kind of question to linger and leave for listeners, but Grace, thank you so, so much for being on the show on Public Hearing, it is great to connect with you and wonderful to see you in the community. And I am so excited for when things are back to being more regularly in person, and we will hopefully see each other regularly at some of the farmer's markets.
Grace Sliwoski (54:49):
Yeah. Sounds great. I look forward to that as well.
Joshua Croke (54:55):
Thank you for listening to Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station. If you're not in the Central Mass radio range, you can tune in live via their website @wicn.org. And remember, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to Grace Sliwoski for coming on the show. I'm your host, Joshua Croke. And this has been the Public Hearing podcast. Public Hearing is created and produced by Action! by Design. You can learn more about us and our work to support organizations through equity centered design @actionbydesign.co. Our audio producer is Giuliano D'Orazio. Thank you to Eric Gratton, Molly Gammon and Sean Chung who also support the production of Public Hearing. If you have something you'd like to hear about on the show, let us know you can visit our website at publichearing.co as always. Thanks for listening.
