EAST PROVIDENCE — The Community Gardens at Hunt’s Mills, the collaborative started last year between public and private entities, held its official grand opening Saturday, April 10, on the grounds in Rumford.

The event included remarks from Mayor Bob DaSilva and Laura McNamara, Executive Director of the East Providence Area Chamber of Commerce. Some 25 gardeners are utilizing the pods built last year by volunteers, including those from the East Providence Historical Society whose home base in the John Hunt House at Hunt’s Mills.

The gardeners were initially able to enter the first of what is hoped to be several community gardens in the city of East Providence. This was also the day the gardeners received the keys to their pods and the first of several batches of seedlings for planting. In addition, it was an opportunity to gather with their fellow gardeners.

According to the Historical Society, the Hunt’s Mills Community Garden project was developed to address the community needs during the Pandemic and beyond. It was an outgrowth of the Society’s Master Gardener program and is designed to provide a personal garden plot for residents to grow their own food. Grant funding came from the Rhode Island Foundation in June 2020 and over the summer and fall have been using those funds to develop a Community Garden Center in the basement of the Historical Society’s Education Center and build the raised beds, including four handicap accessible pods.

The Hunt’s Mills Community Gardens will serve East Providence residents of all ages and build on already established relationships including departments within the City of East Providence, the Sowams Heritage Area Project, the URI Master Gardener Program and the Ten Mile River Watershed Council.

The Society issued the following statement on the grand opening, “Many thanks are due those in the city, state and federal government and to private sector donors whose assistance made this day possible, as well as to the volunteers who gave much of their time."

— East Providence Post and eastbayri.com staff photographer Rich Dionne shot the accompanying gallery of photos.