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Urban Greens Co-op Market 93 Cranston Street, Providence, RI 02907 | 401-273-0362 |
Serving Rhode Islanders Since 2019
Derek has lived in the Elmwood neighborhood of Providence since moving there from the East Side in 2017 with his wife Tiffany and their assortment of aging animals. He came to Providence to finish his graduate degree in philosophy and has spent the last decade teaching about theories of ethics, values, rights, and justice. Because talk alone is not enough, he has also found ways to work with those doing the work necessary to realize those values in our community. He has cultivated and harvested food for local hunger relief agencies with Hope’s Harvest and at Westbay Farm, and he has helped to distribute food directly to food pantry guests at the Olneyville Food Center. Derek has also served as an organizer of the Rhode Island High School Ethics Bowl and as a facilitator of family support programs with NAMI Rhode Island. Having transitioned out of academia, he now works as a housing navigator with Family Service of Rhode Island.
Through his professional and volunteer work, Derek has experience communicating, building relationships, and working effectively with people from a diverse array of personal, educational, and professional backgrounds. He hopes that these skills will make him a valuable addition to the board and that serving on the board will allow him to expand his knowledge of and engagement with the local food system.
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.
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.
Ellen lives in Hope, Rhode Island, which is where she was born and grew up. 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. She 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.
Annajane (AJ) has lived in Providence’s West End and Federal Hill neighborhoods for more than a decade and has been active in efforts around racial equity, drug policy reform, and other community causes. She was an early volunteer with Urban Greens from 2012 to 2014 – before the co-op had a storefront – supporting the hiring of its first staff member, member outreach, and early governance efforts. Seeing the co-op grow from an idea into a physical store has been exciting for her.
AJ currently serves as Director of Strategy at Project Weber/RENEW, a harm reduction nonprofit. In this role, she works ond a diverse range of topics including grant writing, evaluation, advocacy, community relations, and organizational management, and helped lead the organization’s work on new overdose prevention initiatives.
She has held leadership roles across nonprofit and advocacy settings, developing experience in project management, finances, fundraising, and the creation of a good spreadsheet. AJ hopes to contribute these skills to the Urban Greens Board, particularly around accessibility, equity, and financial sustainability.
AJ enjoys jogging around Dexter Park, and can often be found doorknocking for local causes and candidates she believes in.
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 also co-leads the Young Farmer Network and has previously worked for Doors Open RI, the URI Master Gardener Program, and PARL.
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 addition to her background in food systems, Francesca brings to the board experience in program, events, volunteer, and communications management. As a committee and board member, Francesca has co-led the establishment of ongoing member-owner demographic data collection and the implementation of a grant to provide free Food For All memberships to low-income neighbors of the store. In May she served as board point person for the store’s first-ever member drive, which resulted in over 80 new memberships. Francesca believes that Urban Greens plays a critical role in Providence as values-driven food retail institution, committed to supporting and serving its neighbors and shoppers.
Francesca lives on the west side with her partner, two cats, and container garden. She is also an interdisciplinary artist and serial crafter with practices in ceramics, embroidery, and dance.
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.
Since 2022, I have been honored to call Olneyville home, where I live with my wife, Alexis, and our two dogs, Otis and Oreo. This community has shaped me, and in return, I have dedicated my career to serving and uplifting its families.
I currently serve as the Food Access Coordinator for the Sankofa Initiative at the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation. In this role, I work to advance food justice by ensuring equitable access to healthy, sustainable food. I teach families from diverse backgrounds how to grow food both indoors and outdoors, grounded in the belief that food is medicine. Our community gardens and farm are not only spaces for nourishment but also for connection, learning, and empowerment.
My commitment to service began as an AmeriCorps member and continued as an Ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation New England, where I became a certified Community Health Worker. These experiences deepened my dedication to equity, health, and building bridges between people and resources.
I believe Urban Greens plays a vital role in creating healthier communities, and I am eager to contribute my skills and passion as a board member. My focus will be on strengthening community engagement and building connections between Urban Greens and the neighborhoods it serves. Together, we can foster a cooperative that not only provides access to nutritious food but also inspires pride, resilience, and unity.
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.
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.
Hi, I’m Andrew! I have lived in the Providence area for 14 years, mostly in Federal Hill but currently in Elmwood. For 10 years, I worked as the Community Growers Director at Southside Community Land Trust, overseeing a community garden network of over 22 properties and over 300 gardening families. I also ran a small organic market garden in East Providence, Sweetfern Farm, for 4 years. That involved turning a former lawn into a vegetable, herb, and fruit growing space, and selling to neighbors, farmers markets, and restaurants.
I’ve spent a lot of time in food growing and distribution, and helping others to grow or otherwise deepen their relationship to food. A lot of my work, in the food sector and in my past career in adult education, has been with immigrants and new Americans (I speak Spanish and French ok, forgot most of my Mandarin, and know a bit of Swahili). I always focus on accessibility and inclusivity that lead to actual meaningful participation by a range of community members. I’ve also learned that delivering tangible actions and improvements is an essential part of accessibility and inclusivity.
I’m excited to bring this to the UG Board, and I genuinely enjoy and find beauty in getting to know all the different people involved in a neighborhood institution and seeing all the different ways they interact with it and shape it. For fun, I enjoy rock climbing, exploring the woods for edible plants and fungi, and reading too much sci-fi.
I’ve lived in Providence since 1999 and witnessed the evolution of food options in underrepresented neighborhoods. My passion for food equity and sustainable agriculture led me to support Urban Greens early on, and I’ve seen its positive community impact. I appreciate the welcoming environment at the co-op for a diverse group of shoppers and its commitment to local ownership, which empowers the community and ensures that members feel valued. I experienced this when my suggestion for sodium-free canned beans was implemented.
With over 20 years in financial services, my experience in cash management, compliance, and research will prove valuable. My transition to Building Futures, a local non-profit, aligns my professional skills with my personal values of social impact. From Employer Relations Assistant to Apprenticeship Data & Research Manager, I have consistently demonstrated a detail-oriented, process-driven approach to support the organization’s mission.
As a person of color and an immigrant from a family of gardeners and farmers, I deeply appreciate food systems and sustainable practices. My experience in organic gardening reinforces my commitment to advocating for healthier food options while recognizing the pressures on local farmers.
I am eager to contribute my skills and lived experiences to serve on the board of Urban Greens, as I believe my background and values align perfectly with the co-op’s mission to foster a more equitable and sustainable food system.
I live with my husband and finicky cat and we have raised two young adults who are trying to live their best lives.
I’ve spent my career at the intersection of food, leadership, and community. For 16 years at Equal Exchange in West Bridgewater, MA — one of the country’s oldest and most successful worker-owned cooperatives — I worked in Quality Control and Leadership Development. During that time, I served as Worker-Owner Coordinator, facilitating the activities of nearly 150 worker-owners, and later as a member of the Board of Directors, where I chaired the Leadership & Training Committee and served as Vice Chair. I also served two terms on the Board of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association in Hope Valley, RI, including roles as President and Vice President.
Today, I am the Director for Member Success at Hope & Main, Rhode Island’s culinary incubator. I support more than 150 food entrepreneurs as they navigate business growth, market entry, and access to capital — helping to build a more just, sustainable, and resilient local food economy.
I am a certified Food Systems Consultant through the Food Finance Institute at the University of Wisconsin and a graduate of the Food Solutions New England Network Leadership Institute at the University of Vermont. I also hold a Certificate in Financial Accounting from Babson College.
Beyond my professional work, I advise business students at Salve Regina University and have served as an expert panelist for the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety. I am passionate about cooperatives and increasing consumer ownership in the food system, and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors as Urban Greens navigates leadership transitions and growth, contributing my experience to support the co-op’s mission and community impact.
