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by Josia DeChiara Back in September 2017, I decided to do some googling to find out what other organizations around the Somerville area were involved in urban farming and gardening work. I stumbled upon the Herbstalk website, began talking to Steph about various ways the two organizations could work together, and the rest is history! Groundwork Somerville is an environmental justice nonprofit based out of Union Square, whose mission is to create a cleaner, greener, healthier, more equitable Somerville. Our programs fall into three main categories: Youth Programs, Food and Farms, and Sustainable Environment. Within the Youth Programs, we have our Green Team and the Schoolyard Gardens. The Green Team works on projects in urban agriculture, environmental justice, and civic engagement. Green Team Members develop leadership and job skills while building a team and serving their community. The Green Team grows the leadership potential of Somerville youth to work for environmental and social justice. Our Schoolyard Gardens program brings year-round garden-based education to children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. Groundwork Somerville manages gardens at all nine of the city’s public elementary and middle schools, a public charter school, and a public library. In both in-school and after-school programs, children learn to plan, plant, tend, harvest, and cook food from their own school gardens.  After teaching a workshop at the winter Herbstalk Herbal Marketplace on sensory engagement and social-emotional skills development through herbs and gardens, Herbstalk generously donated funds for a large order of herb seedlings from Muddy River Herbals. As a tiny organization, we do not have the capacity to start our own seedlings, so having the opportunity to source and grow more uncommon herbs was incredibly exciting! We try to have at least a small herb section at each of our school garden sites, but typically are not able to include anything more than culinary herbs like mint, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Now, at all of our larger garden sites, we will have a deluxe herb garden, thanks to Herbstalk and Muddy River Herbals! The Food and Farms program is focused on our quarter-acre urban farm, South Street Farm, and a new growing space at ArtFarm, a former waste transfer site on Poplar Street being converted into a space for art and urban agriculture to cohabitate and create novel community spaces. At both of these sites, we grow food to supply the Somerville Mobile Farmer’s Market. The majority of this food is grown as part of our World Crops program. We currently have five mentor farmers, each of whom bring experience cultivating crops from their countries of origin. With their oversight, we are working to demonstrate the economic viability of cultivating culturally relevant crops for larger farms, as well as supplying these foods to the Somerville community through the mobile market. Included in our seedling order from Muddy River Herbals were epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides) and culantro (Eryngium foetidum), two herbs that we are adding to our World Crops repertoire. Epazote is native to central and south America, where it is used both for culinary and medicinal purposes. Culantro is a culinary and medicinal herb grown and used in the West Indies, many countries in Latin America, as well as Vietnam.
Our Sustainable Environment program is the most broad, and includes monthly “Cleaning and Greening” Days of drop-in volunteer site cleanups and our ongoing collaboration with Bike to the Sea, Inc. on developing the Northern Strand Community Bike Trail. This bike trail, when complete, will connect Everett, Malden, Saugus, Lynn, and Revere, creating a bike friendly path to the sea. How can one get involved with Groundwork Somerville? Thanks for asking!
  Josia DeChiara is the AmeriCorps Youth Education Coordinator at Groundwork Somerville, coordinating the Schoolyard Gardens and Maple Syrup Project. Josia's childhood passion for playing with and learning about plants and soil turned into a degree in ecology from Hampshire College. Josia has worked for many environmental education programs over the years, and hopes to inspire awe for the natural world in many others. When not outside with children, Josia can be found riding and fixing bicycles, exploring swimming spots, contra dancing, making kombucha, or reading about traditional ecological knowledge.
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