By Lily Goldberg
Photographs by Stephanie Zollshan

Fifty percent of farmers markets fail in their first couple of years and, in 2012, it looked like the Pittsfield Farmers Market might be headed that way. That was before the teens took over. Berkshire residents who frequent the Pittsfield Farmers Market may not know that the market—which brings dozens of local vendors, farmers, and artisans to First Street every Saturday morning—is staffed entirely by students. But thanks to Roots Rising, an award-winning non-profit organization that empowers teenagers to become community leaders through food and farming, these young people are well equipped for the challenge of coordinating vendors, managing finances, and administering food justice programs.

“When you’ve worked in 93-degree weather for hours upon hours, or when it’s raining, or when you’re just exhausted from weeding for two weeks straight—it’s really amazing, and makes you really appreciate the food that you eat.”
—Jessica Vecchia

The seeds of Roots Rising were planted a decade ago, when Jessica Vecchia—who was running the struggling Pittsfield Farmers Market—met Jamie Samowitz, who managed an after-school farm and garden program administered by the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Both women recognized that Pittsfield’s teens needed paying jobs, and both admired the work of Boston-based nonprofit The Food Project, which has, since 1991, employed eastern Massachusetts youth on urban and suburban farmland.

“We thought about how we could adapt their model for the Berkshires,” said Vecchia of co-founding Roots Rising with Samowitz (Vecchia is the organization’s current executive director while Samowitz left the organization last year to pursue a career in psychotherapy). Since the program began, nearly 200 teenagers from the Pittsfield area have worked on Farm Crews at Hancock Shaker Village, Abode Farm (in New Lebanon, New York), Red Shirt Farm (Lanesborough), and Holiday Brook Farm (Dalton). In 2019, Roots Rising launched its market crew program for former Farm Crew participants to become administrators of the Pittsfield Farmers Market.

Teaching youth to farm is especially powerful in an age where agriculture tends to be dominated by an older generation: in a 2022 survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the average age of farmers to be 58. But training the next generation isn’t Roots Rising’s goal: rather, the program trains teenagers to become community-minded citizens. “It’s a really holistic program,” said Vecchia. “We use farming to teach life skills, job skills that are totally transferable.

This summer, Roots Rising embarked on its most ambitious project yet: creating a farm of its own. In February, the nonprofit acquired a plot of land at 923 Barker Road in Pittsfield and is currently working with Pittsfield architectural firm Group AU to develop the land into an educational center for curious growers and learners of all ages. “There are a lot of adults in our community looking for the kind of meaningful work and the kind of connection that our farm crews offer our teens,” said Vecchia. Preliminary plans for the space include a commercial kitchen for farm-to-table meals, apprentice housing, a CSA hub for the local community to pick up fresh produce, a pick-your-own-field, and teaching gardens. Though they are still in the planning and fundraising stage, Roots Rising hopes to begin work as soon as this fall, with the goal of a first farm season in 2026.

“We’re really trying to get to know the land, and not just come in with what we want, but making sure that our plans work with what the land also wants, what it’s capable of,” said Vecchia.

Lasting Impacts

Isabella Penna-Ward was on the Farm Crew in high school, and now she’s Roots Rising’s youngest board member. Here, she shares her experience.

Historically, I have been pretty terrible at keeping plants alive. My experience with Roots Rising has certainly helped with that. When I started with Roots Rising in 2018, as a student at Pittsfield High School, I got to see how everything comes together—how food grows and winds up at a market or in a grocery store. Getting to see every aspect of the process was fascinating, and brought to the forefront of my mind issues like food justice, which I hadn’t given too much complex thought before.

Roots Rising was my first-ever job. I had no idea what a job application was, what a W2 form was. It set me on my path, not just in terms of my academic interests and personal passions, but also in a professional sense. I was a pretty introverted high schooler—I didn’t really interact too much with students from other schools, students across the community. I only knew people in my classes. Being a part of Roots Rising allowed me to meet kids I never would have met. Because the crews are so small, it’s such an intimate experience. You really get to speak with one another, know one another deeply.

Even the tasks that might come across as mundane were exciting and fun. We used to have “mulch races” at Red Shirt Farm—it would be really cold, but we would have a blast just running around and racing these buckets of mulch. We planted a lot of garlic on Red Shirt Farm. We’d sit around in a circle and tell stories and just break apart hundreds of heads of garlic. We were really tired because we’d had a full day of school. But also, it was fun—now, I can take apart a head of garlic, break it off into cloves, so quickly because it’s ingrained in me.

Not only did I learn and grow a passion for food, farming, and agriculture, I saw my peers finding that joy and excitement. There were people who were amazed to see a carrot pulled out of the ground. One of the important things for Roots Rising is making the experience of food and farming more accessible. It can be an engaging experience, no matter what your skill—you don’t have to have 20 raised beds to consider yourself someone with a green thumb. You just have to have a passion for it.

I see Roots Rising as a uniting force throughout our community. People bump into each other at the Farmers Market—they haven’t seen each other in forever, but they’re both out getting tomatoes, so they strike up a conversation. I’ve been able to tell people that had never heard about the Pittsfield Farmers Market about what we have to offer, and seen them go to the Market every week after and make friends there, get to know the vendors and be able to buy fresh products for their families. Last summer, I interned at Hancock Shaker Village. I was on the farm and garden crew, and I got to work with the visiting Roots Rising summer crews. Instead of being the kid working with the farmer, I was the farmer working with the kid. That internship brought everything to the forefront for me again. I applied for the Roots Rising board and joined shortly thereafter; I am currently the youngest board member, and I am the only former youth crew member. I’m really excited—I hope to be one of many former Farm Crew kids helping to forward the organization’s mission.