September 6, 2026

Annual Member-Owner meeting by Zoom Sept 21, 6:30pm

Member-Owner Meeting, September 28th

Please Join Us! Details for Our Virtual Annual Meeting & Board Election

The Urban Greens board looks forward to seeing you on zoom for this year’s annual meeting! We will provide a look back at the past year, give updates on where we’re at, discuss what we have in store for the future, and make time for members to socialize and ask questions. Meeting details, including time, date, and how to join are included above.

—Mini Meeting Context—

This year we are making some changes to our annual meeting and voting process…Since opening the store, the board has been convening the annual meeting in the Fall. In accordance with our Bylaws the annual meeting should be held within 90 days after the fiscal year-end in December. The board has voted to move next year’s annual meeting to this schedule and return to an in-person meeting in March. So, we are holding this “mini” annual meeting for continuity, to provide updates, and to re-elect incumbent board members whose terms are up. In the Spring, we will have a more robust meeting and a regular competitive election for the upcoming open board seats. If you are interested in being on the board, please consider applying then! (and email anytime if interested!) We appreciate your understanding as we continue to work together through the many changes and transitions the past year has brought.

If you have any questions you’d like the board to address, please email questions to ugcouncil@urbangreens.com in advance so we can provide as complete an answer as possible during the meeting. We will also be able to take questions in some format during the Q&A portion of the meeting, but it will be much easier to respond in detail to questions that are sent in advance, so we encourage you to send along any questions you may have now.

Member-owners, non-owners, and future owners are all welcome to attend! See you then!

Voting Initiatives:

At the core of a cooperative organization’s democratic structure is the voting process, and the accountability to ownership that it brings. The Annual Member-Owner Meeting facilitates space for member-owners to exercise this right and responsibility. Through voting, owners help make important decisions that dictate the direction of the Co-op, and select candidates from among their fellow owners to represent them on the Co-op’s governing board.

This year, we will be voting to re-elect 2 incumbent members to retain their board seats; the board has nominated 2 candidates for consideration by the owners

  • Ellen Asermely (Vice-Chair)
  • Francesca Gallo

Voting Instructions:

Whether you are able to attend the meeting or not, please vote online in advance! This is critical to helping ensure that we have a quorum and can complete our election process.

Each owner may vote for up to 2 candidates. Members will receive an email the week of September 14, with a direct link to vote. Each email is linked to the member-owner’s email to ensure secure voting. (One vote per member-ownership share.) Once you’ve received the email, just follow the instructions! If you have any questions about voting or can’t find your link, please email your questions to ugcouncil@urbangreens.com in advance.

Francesca Gallo

Francesca Gallo

Francesca has lived in Providence and been part of the RI food and farm community since 2017. She currently works as Program Coordinator for the Conservation Law Foundation’s Legal Food Hub, where she connects farmers, food entrepreneurs, and food and farm organizations to free legal assistance. Francesca is also on the advisory board for the Young Farmer Network of Southeastern New England. Francesca joined the Urban Greens Justice/Equity Committee as a non-board member in 2020, served as committee Co-Chair in 2022, and joined the board as an appointed board member in early 2023. In 2025, she co-chaired the board’s GM Hiring Committee, which led the interviews and ultimate hire of the store’s new GM, Jenny Wilson. She now chairs the GM Management Committee. Francesca believes that Urban Greens plays a critical role in Providence as a values-driven food retail institution, committed to supporting and serving its neighbors and shoppers.Francesca lives on Federal Hill with her partner, two cats, and container garden.

Ellen Asermely

Ellen Asermely

Ellen lives in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, after growing up in Hope, Rhode Island. Ellen has served on the Urban Greens board for 3 years, including 2 years as vice-chair. Ellen works at Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) and splits the workweek evenly between running youth programming in Providence and farming at City Farm, the Land Trust’s market and demonstration farm. Ellen also currently serves on their town’s Sustainability Initiatives Committee. Their work at SCLT has grounded Ellen in local food systems, especially in the neighborhoods surrounding Urban Greens. Ellen has built a strong understanding of food growing in many forms, food access programs, grant writing, working with young people, and the importance of communication about equitable, local food systems with community members. Serving on a municipal sustainability committee as well as doing regenerative farm work also has Ellen thinking long term about how to protect the environment and our expansive human and more-than-human community. Ellen is excited about the opportunity to serve on the Board and dig more deeply into the distribution phase of the food system, especially ways to make it more equitable for both producers and consumers. You can often find Ellen with friends out in the woods, in a body of water, or cooking and baking with seasonal produce.

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