Member-Owner Meeting, September 12th

Jazandra Barros (they/she)
Jazandra is a born Rhode Islander, growing up in Providence and living on the South Side. Jazandra is currently a Program and Governance Steward for the Racial and Environmental Justice Committee where they have served as a committee member since 2018, organizing and facilitating community-led policies and practices towards a Just Providence.

Their background and passion for culinary arts and their care for local food systems, regenerative agriculture, and co-operative economics informs all of their work, and they look forward to bringing this care along with their community engagement skills to the Urban Greens Board and hope to help foster equitable growth for the store and the surrounding communities. In their free time you can find them outside in their garden, rollerskating in the park, by the water, or cooking up some other creative whim.

Rink Dickinson (he/him)
I have been a Providence resident with my partner Susan since the early 90’s. Our daughter Savanna went to high school at Classical down the street from the coop.

Coops have been a lot of what I have done for the last 40 years. In 1986 I co-founded Equal Exchange a worker coop alternative trade organization. I am one of two ceo’s/presidents of Equal Exchange. This work supporting small farmers and trying to create more fairness in the market challenges and inspires still today.

On the consumer coop level I spent several years on the board of what was then Cambridge Food Coop and was part of the board that merged with Boston Coop to create a larger coop (Harvest Coop) that worked for another decade plus and then failed.

I want to see Urban Greens work through our significant challenges and be here for the long term. I ask for your support and if elected I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

Brittany Lizotte (she/her)
Brittany is a native Rhode Islander and long term fangirl of Urban Greens. After graduating from The New School with degrees in Integrated Design (BFA, 2019) and Visual Storytelling (BS, 2019), she moved home amid the pandemic and became a cashier at the Co-Op. Working at Urban Greens at that time became pivotal in helping her reconnect with Providence and the blooming food access and sustainability initiatives in the state. As she’s started her career beyond Urban Greens, she’s sought to bring her creative skillset to climate and social justice organizations in the New England region and has found a particular passion in the food-access ecosystem. In her current role at The Greater Boston Food Bank, Brittany facilitates Direct Response marketing initiatives, working to raise funds to help power the food bank’s network of 600 partner agencies across Eastern Massachusetts.

While she works in Boston, she’s eager to bring this ethos back home and is hoping to help Urban Greens develop financial sustainability while maintaining the mission of offering nutritious and affordable food. As a potential Board Member, Brittany is excited to be more deeply engaged with the Co-Op community from staff to vendors to member-owners, whether that be through events, fundraisers, or just shopping! She firmly believes that nutritious food is a human right and it always tastes better when it is connected to the neighbors and land around us.

Marc Malone (he/they)
I proudly hail from Boston but decided to make Rhode Island my home in 2009 after spending a few years in North Carolina. As of 2015, I’ve been enjoying life with my three remarkable dogs in the Charles neighborhood of Providence.

My professional journey has taken me through various industries, all centered on providing excellent customer service and efficient operations. In my current role as an operations consultant, I bring extensive experience in project management, process design, and business controls to the table.

I’m passionate about joining the board to apply my expertise and make a meaningful contribution by facilitating accessible options for others. My interests lie in community outreach and promoting education on sustainable food systems and urban farming.

When I’m not immersed in nature, tending to my garden, hiking, cycling, or exploring beautiful Providence with my furry companions, you’ll find me in my workshop. There, I channel my creativity into crafting projects using wood, clay, metal, and repurposed materials.

David Colby Reed (he/him)
I’m a designer, social scientist, and a new(ish) neighbor in Federal Hill. I’m hoping to contribute my skills in facilitation and framing ambiguous problems to the challenges that the Urban Greens Board will tackle over the next few years.

With my now-husband, Lee-Sean Huang, I founded and have run Foossa, a service design practice. Some highlights: redesigning public services in NYC that have helped hundreds of thousands of primarily low-income New Yorkers save money and time, storytelling and experience design with the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda to help tell the story of the genocide and post-genocide reconstruction, and conducting research on the financial pressures faced by families with children undergoing cancer treatment in order to lighten the burdens that these families have to shoulder.

These days, I’m mostly working on a PhD at MIT, where I study the design of complex social systems and emerging technologies in computing and space exploration.

Before moving to Providence, I’d spent most of my life in New York. I served on my local community board (the most local level of local government) in Manhattan, and I was also a trustee of the NYC chapter of the Awesome Foundation, an organization that makes monthly microgrants to support creative projects in the community.

When we’re not avoiding copious amounts of imaginary lava on the floor, I love reading stories and making up games with my six-year old nephew.

Philip Trevvett (he/him)
After living in Washington Park, the West End, Olneyville, Smith Hill and College Hill over the past 20 years, Philip now lives in the Elmwood neighborhood of Providence. He works at Harvard Medical School in Harvard Catalyst’s informatics department. This work has helped him develop strong project management and team building skills that have been useful during his time on the Urban Greens board. He has also volunteered over the years with many agricultural and local food system businesses and nonprofits, most recently joining the board of the Neighboring Food Co-ops Association, an organization that supports food co-ops across the northeast region.

Philip is currently vice chair of the UG board, and was one of the core board members involved in getting the co-op open: leading the effort to successfully raise over $1 million in startup capital, as well as spearheading community outreach and many member drive efforts prior to the store’s opening. Since the co-op opened in 2019, Philip has focused on the board’s development through recruitment and governance, as well as building-out management structures for the relationship between the board and the General Manager. Philip is excited to be nominated for an additional term to support the cultivation of new board leadership and work towards the long term stability of the co-op.

Philip has recently been reigniting his longtime appreciation of playgrounds and free jazz–spending many hours enjoying both of these along with his 2 year old son.

Vanessa Urena (she/her)
I have resided in the Olneyville area of Providence for the last 4 years, before that I resided in the Central falls/ Pawtucket area for 10 years. But I was born and raised in Bronx, New York, where I was first exposed to cooperative food stores.

Currently I volunteer as co-chair of the communications teams of a nonprofit cooperative, Co-op Rhody, to establish and unionize cooperative dispensaries in Rhode Island and provide entrepreneurship for diverse communities that have been disproportionately affected by the “War on Drugs.” I manage the social media presence highlighting policy changes, social equity initiatives, and local networking events. Additionally, I’m enrolled in the North RI Conservation District’s Urban Growers Leadership Program 2024, receiving tools, education and resources to enhance and develop farming, gardening and other agricultural skills.

I was lead Clinical Medical Assistant for 5 years at a local primary care center, providing training for onboarding CMAs as well as support liaison between patients, their care teams and physicians.

I proudly advocate through multiple organizations for anti-war, cannabis decriminalization and housing justice policies.

Serving on the board for Urban Greens aligns with my belief that cooperatives are the catalyst to shift our mentality from a capitalistic and individualistic society. Bringing locally grown healthy foods and access to affordable alternatives to my neighbors motivates me.

For fun, I tend to my apartment window box garden of tomatoes and peppers; watch movies with my teen son, Owyn; and enjoy a good radical book club.I

Recap from the top:

Member-Owner Meeting, September 12th

When: Thursday, September 12

Time: 6:30-7:30 PM
Where: On Zoom. Register here to receive a link to the zoom meeting.

If you have any questions you’d like the board to address, please email your questions to ugcouncil@urbangreens.com in advance, so we can provide as complete an answer as possible during the meeting.