Students and community members connect urban agriculture efforts to UN environmental summit
The Tufts Sustainable CORE Fellows visiting Groundwork Somerville's South Street Farm. Photo: Brianna Arce
Inspired by the annual United Nations climate talks, students brought a problem-solving spirit to a climate solutions lab on campus. Their goal? To help a nonprofit group that may soon lose the land for its urban farm.
The Sustainable CORE Fellows and the Office of the Vice Provost for Education collaborated with environmental organization Groundwork Somerville to host COP30 Solutions Lab: Global Climate Governance and Local Problem Solving on Nov. 7. The event aimed to bring students and community members together to translate international climate commitments into local solutions.
Elena Manson, a CORE Fellow and Tufts senior pursuing a double major in applied environmental studies and civic studies, said the solutions lab addressed one of the main themes in the UN summit’s agenda—agriculture and dealing with land restrictions as development and urban growth increase.
“We wanted to create a space for people with different backgrounds, different interests, and different goals and ideas to unite and actually create a very tangible and concrete solution that can be implemented to improve the community around us,” she said.
The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, is a series of meetings at which governments assess global efforts to address climate change, limit global warming, and reduce emissions. This year, it is being hosted by Brazil in Belém from Nov. 10 to 21.
Groundwork Somerville aims to build a greener and more equitable city through community-driven work. More than 20 students and community members who gathered at Curtis Hall were tasked with finding potential resolutions to a challenge that Groundwork Somerville is facing. Currently, the organization runs Somerville’s only farm, South Street Farm. But it does not own the land, and pressures for more development in the area mean the farm will need to be relocated in the near future.
The challenge was to find ways for Groundwork Somerville to continue its urban agriculture and youth development work without its current property and to better integrate the organization into the East Somerville community.
Students and community members broke into groups to discuss different themes: technological solutions, policy and regulation, financing solutions, and outreach, partnerships, and community engagement. Photo: Haley Lerner
With ideas formed over Brazilian food from local restaurant Oasis, students and community members broke into groups to discuss different themes: technological solutions, policy and regulation, financing solutions, and outreach, partnerships, and community engagement. At the end of the meeting, they presented their ideas and findings, which ranged from developing a rooftop urban farm to hosting a benefit concert with local musicians.
Kenzie Ballard, N23, is director of community engagement and climate resilience at Groundwork Somerville. As a graduate of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University who studied agriculture, food, and the environment, Ballard said the collaboration feels “full circle.”
“I’ve watched Tufts be really intentional about climate, especially the students, about how they can join the climate fight and plug into what organizations are doing,” Ballard said. “It is really hard but wonderful work.”
Brianna Arce, a CORE Fellow and senior studying biopsychology and environmental studies, hopes the solutions lab helped students understand how rapid urban development affects the communities they live in.
“We want students to be able to walk away being able to collaborate with people who come in with different expertise and interests and promote interdisciplinary work,” Arce said. “I think this type of solution-based thinking is something that can be a really good skill to have.”
Manson hopes to continue hosting events like this and have more opportunities for students and CORE Fellows to create long-lasting partnerships with community-based organizations.
“This is not a one-time thing, one and done,” Manson said. The CORE Fellows aim to “replicate this model and continue the partnerships that we’re starting right now, and just acknowledge that as Tufts students, we do not live in a vacuum. We are intimately connected with the community around us.”
“As we continue to experience climate change in our day-to-day lives, it's really important for students to be able to zoom in and out between the global and the local,” said Ann Ward, the sustainability education and strategy manager for Tufts Office of Sustainability. “Just because [the UN summit] is happening across the world in Brazil this year doesn't mean it’s not connected to our communities and our lives.”
