North End Community Improvement Collaborative

Feed the Farmers: Our 2025 Richland Gives Campaign 

 

Growing skills and nurturing second chances.

This year, your donation during Richland Gives directly supports the individuals who work on our farms, assist at the North End Farmers Market, and take part in our Specialty Crop Manager Program, a unique partnership between NECIC, Central State University Extension, and Richland Correctional Institute2024 Graduates of the Crop Manager Program (RiCI).

These individuals volunteer their time and energy to grow fresh, local produce that feeds families across Mansfield. In return, NECIC provides them with weekly meals, ingredients, and some equipment they use to cook and share meals together while they work on our farms and work toward their crop management certificates.

The meals we provide represent one of NECIC’s largest annual program expenses, but they also represent one of our most powerful impacts. Your support directly fuels this work by helping us sustain both the Urban Farm at Bowman Street and the Flourish Farm at RiCI, where skills are learned, lives are rebuilt, and healthy food is grown, donated to local food banks, used by local restaurants, and sold directly to our neighbors and friends in the North End at our Urban Farm and the North End Farmers Market.

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What does your gift do?Clayton — Urban Farm Crew, Bowman Street

$25 — Helps us support one farm worker for an entire week.

$50 — Helps us support two workers for a week.  

$100 — Covers a full week of groceries for the entire farm crew.  

$250 — Sustains the Urban Farm for a month of nourishing meals and learning.  

Why it matters

At NECIC, our mission is to improve the quality of life and economic landscape of the North End Community. Our farm program reflects that mission by transforming vacant land into of opportunity. It provides individuals the chance to learn new skills and rebuild their lives. 

By continuing to fund this program and helping us feed our farm crew each week,  you are helping us welcome more participants, grow greater quantities of high-quality produce, and share that food with our neighbors, local restaurants, and food banks. Each dollar invested helps this program grow stronger and continue to serve as a place of education and community for years to come.

By giving today, you are not just feeding farmers. You are feeding the future of the North End.