PROVIDENCE – Farm Fresh Rhode Island will have a leadership change starting next month.
Sheri Griffin, who has served as the nonprofit food marketplace and programming organization for the last 16 years and collaboratively led it with Jesse Rye, will step down from Farm Fresh in December, Farm Fresh announced Tuesday. Rye will then become the organization’s sole executive director in 2023.
In a statement, Griffin said she is moving on from Farm Fresh to “pursue other passions and interests,” as well as to spend more time with family. However, she says she remains eager to see new ideas, opportunities and pathways that Farm Fresh can follow with new leadership in place.
Farm Fresh said Griffin, who first began volunteering for the organization in 2005, helped Farm Fresh grow from a student-led project in shared office space in a basement at Brown University to an organization with a staff of 50 and a newly built 60,000-square-foot food hub in the city’s Valley neighborhood. Additionally, Griffin along with Rye, Farm Fresh said, established its Wintertime Farmers Market at AS220 in 2007, the first such wintertime market in the state; the Market Mobile program connecting local farmers and food producers with restaurants, schools, households and hunger relief agencies; the Harvest Kitchen job training program for underserved teens; and the Bonus Bucks dollar-match program to assist low-income farmers market shoppers.
“[Griffin’s] work has had a profound impact on the local food system in Rhode Island and New England and is evident in every Farm Fresh program, project and event,” Farm Fresh board Chairperson Kristine Merz said in a statement.
Rye said in a statement that he is also proud of what Farm Fresh has achieved to date and is thankful for Griffin’s vision, leadership and friendship.
“We have a tremendous team in place and I am excited to see how emerging leaders and new voices at Farm Fresh will help guide the future of our work,” he said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
