We welcome your inquiries, suggestions, and ideas! Correspondence via mail can be sent to:

Farm Fresh Rhode Island
Box 1943
Providence, RI 02912

Become a supporter of Farm Fresh Rhode Island and support our work toward more environmentally and socially sustainable food in our region.

Noah Fulmer
Executive Director - noah@farmfreshri.org

Noah grew up in central New Jersey where suburban development pressures are a persistent challenge to farm viability. The deep taste of a freshly picked blueberry won Noah over at an early age. He was raised on corn from the farmstand down the road and spoiled by the flavors of his grandmother's traditional soups -- made fresh from vegetables growing in the small backyard-turned-garden that lay just beyond her kitchen window. But despite the "Garden State" nostalgia, new houses and strip malls were devouring nearby farmland. Noah saw the same patterns after moving to Rhode Island for college.

Noah's passion led him to co-found Farm Fresh Rhode Island. How could you ensure that local farms and just-picked foods have a place in our communities? People want to buy locally grown foods, but don't necessarily have the resources. The Internet is an ideal starting point for providing information about Rhode Island's farmers' markets, farms and foods. In fact, it would be critical if family farms are to compete in the modern food system. So despite having sworn off computer coding after two perilous years in high school, the need for a web-based information tool for farms and consumers is too pressing. Noah led both the design and production of the Farm Fresh RI website, with the hopes of expanding access to locally grown foods and sustaining farmstands and fresh flavors for generations to come. Today, in addition to the website, Noah oversees organizational programming, partnerships and strategy.

Sheri Griffin
Development Director; Farmers' Market Coordinator - sheri@farmfreshri.org

After establishing a farm stand and mail order citrus business with her parents and grandparents after high school, Sheri Griffin attended the University of Rhode Island, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and biology. After graduation, Ms. Griffin entered the nonprofit world, beginning as Director of Development and Publicity at AS220, a nonprofit arts center in Providence. Since then, she has worked at a range of nonprofits of various sizes and has become active in her neighborhood, working with other volunteers to keep a library branch open and starting a community garden.

Jess Knapp
Development Coordinator - jessk@farmfreshri.org

Growing up in the suburban sprawl of South Florida, Jessica always believed that fruits and vegetables came from the florescent lit and highly refrigerated produce sections of big box grocery stores that now dominate so many of our communities. While there are vague memories of childhood trips to pick-your-own farms for strawberries and tomatoes, she didn't fully recognize that these foods come from the ground, grown by working people, meant for our enjoyment as well as our good health. While at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, she discovered that being aware of the food system and making informed choices at every meal can have an impact on the environment and the economy. She moved into an environmental co-op and discovered a new world of composting, gardening, community supported agriculture programs, and eating with the seasons. After college, she worked in several Philadelphia restaurants, where many of the chefs and owners she worked for embraced the local foods movement. She then moved to Rhode Island to work in fundraising and community relations at Rhode Island Free Clinic. She looks forward to using her energy to bring fresh local food, knowledge, and good health to all Rhode Islanders.

Heidi Hetzler
Nutrition Coordinator - heidi@farmfreshri.org

Heidi Hetzler is the Nutrition Coordinator for Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Born and raised in rural Maine, Heidi grew up eating from her family's bountiful garden, and later, from their small organic vegetable farm. Only by leaving home to attend the University of Rhode Island (and the mass-produced meals of its dining halls) did she come to fully appreciate the delicious and health-giving produce she had grown up with. If you visited Monday Market or one of the other many Rhode Island farmers' markets this season, you may have seen Heidi handing out samples of oatmeal zucchini bread, apple cole slaw, or italian white bean soup, as well as recipes, nutrition information, and tips for eating healthy on a budget. She currently works as a Community Nutrition Educator for the Rhode Island Food Stamp Nutrition Program, through which she performs nutrition demonstrations at food stamp offices, farmers' markets, and health fairs, and runs after school nutrition classes at Boys and Girls Clubs and schools in the Providence area.

Heidi believes that a number of the world's problems, including ill health, unhappines, and violence, will be solved when everyone has equal access to a community that provides fresh, locally grown, nutritious, delicious food. Why not start with Rhode Island?

Louella Hill
On a Cheesemaking Sabbatical - louella@farmfreshri.org

Louella comes from a small border town in Arizona called Bisbee. She is the daughter of artists and the third of four children. In 1999 she moved to Rhode Island to attend Brown University. She graduated in May 2004 with a degree in Environmental Studies. Her senior honors thesis was titled "Localizing the Foodshed: Barriers and Oppertunities for Increasing the Production and Consumption of Locally Grown Foods in the Rhode Island Region".

Louella’s inspiration for Farm Fresh RI began with her love for food. At age 14 she became the youngest pastry chef in the kitchen of Cafe Roka in Bisbee. From there, she went on to work with caterers, bakeries and restaurants. In 2001, she took time off from her studies at Brown to learn "where food comes from". She found herself with an Italian cheesemaker and spent a year learning to make an organic aged Tuscan pecorino.

Returning to Providence, she became intent on connecting rural and urban communities through food. Believing that food is the most powerful medium of social change, she co-founded Farm Fresh RI in effort to formally increase community-wide access to more healthful, more meaningful, more socially and environmentally just foods.

Her dream is to not have even one tomato climb on an airplane or a semi-truck bound for a RI dinnerplate. She hopes one day everyone will not only know their farmer but perhaps have a plot of heirloom tomatoes in their own backyards as well.

She hopes one day to have a dairy herd and make wheels of aged Gruyere.