Ruby Maddox - Fisher

CE Program Coordinator
I am inspired by the mission of the Center for the Environment: "To connect People, Community, and the Earth". We try to offer many opportunities outside of the classroom for students to make these connections. I see my role as one of service, to the students here on campus and the wider community.  This interdisciplinary approach has fostered a desire to explore the challenges involved in building communities that encompass the idea of sustainability, stewardship, and interdependence, and examines how inequities differ or mirror internationally. My personal interest is in grassroots economic development.

I have been a community organizer for almost 10 yrs. Before coming to work for Mount Holyoke I worked for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts (NOFA/Mass) as the Program Director of Gardening the Community. 

Gardening the Community is the social justice program of NOFA/Mass, which employs youth over the summer to teach them how to grow organic food in the city. I helped launch the project with MHC alum Betsy Corner '69, as a youth program consultant. I assisted in project coordination and designed the curriculum. I became director of the program after 2 years. During which time the youth program grew to employ 12 middle school and high school students, gain additional land for farming and, offer fresh local produce to the community through a roadside market and food donations to local shelters.

While doing this work I encountered, The People’s Grocery, a community-based organization in West Oakland that “developed creative solutions to health, environmental, and economic challenges”. I took these ideals and values back to my organization and began to advocate more passionately for support for urban agriculture in the city of Springfield. I stressed this message with the conviction that the struggle for the environment was not separated from the struggle for social justice. Reconnecting to the land and each other is vital for creating sustainable and self sufficient communities.