Winner of the 2021 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Food & Restaurant Journalism Award


Awarded for the 6-part Boston Globe series "States of Farming,"
which looked at BIPOC farmers in New England.

 

"Well-written and comprehensive, Ruggiero’s articles offer insight into the region’s unique agricultural communities and the people who are behind their growth.”

 

SHONDALAND: My Love of Reading Has Shaped My Entire Life

It’s a crisp Saturday afternoon in 1980, and I stand in the center of the gift shop at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, surrounded by beckoning shelves. Radiant light filters in through the windows. Across the room, a cluster of items catches my eye. I walk over, crouch down, and run my fingers over the row of books until I stop. The flatness of the black typeface extending along the turquoise spine belies the danger promised by its title: Mystery at Old Sturbridge Village. I pull out the book. In the center of the cover, two girls crouch in darkness, facing the entrance to the village’s lattice truss covered bridge. They both sport identical shoulder-length bobs, sweaters, and skirts, only one is blonde with a red sweater, and the other wears a pale blue sweater and has brunette hair, just like me. The brunette holds up her right hand in a gesture of fear. It’s nighttime in the picture, and the branches of a gigantic maple tree loom ominously over them. My heart races. I am certain: This will be my first chapter book. I was 7 years old when I left children’s picture books behind and graduated to stories told in prose. Click on title to find link to Full Article

THE BOSTON GLOBE: ‘In caretaking each other, we know that we can provide and have what we need, and that’s how we live abundantly’

The Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective nourishes abundance in Indigenous communities throughout New England October 12, 2021 CENTERVILLE — Hidden from view at the base of a steep wood and brick stairway, Rachael Devaney’s family cottage sits on the shore of Long Pond, mid-Cape. This water is home to many creatures: muskrat, opossum, ducks, snapping turtles, frogs, minnows, and freshwater clams, while osprey, eagles, and seagulls populate the sky above. There’s a saltwater exchange on the shore opposite the cottage — the pond is less than two miles from the Atlantic Ocean — and, in Eastern Woodlands culture, a waterway that flows between fresh and salt is a place of regeneration and cleansing. Click on title to find link to Full Article.

THE BOSTON GLOBE: The African Alliance of Rhode Island brings pop-up markets to underserved communities

August 3, 2021 PROVIDENCE — It’s a sticky 91 degrees on a late Friday afternoon in July, and although the chalk-decorated A-frame sign announces “Pop-Up Market,” the sidewalk outside the Urban Greens Food Co-Op in the West End feels more like a block party. A DJ moves in rhythm as he blasts Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin.” Pedestrians pause as women in colorful African fabrics lift produce from vehicles parked curbside and pile it high in orderly rows of wicker baskets on three long plastic folding tables covered in floral vinyl tablecloths, under which hangs a banner that reads “AARI Bami Farm,” the African Alliance of Rhode Island. The eldest of the women, 63-year-old Garmi Mawolo, wears a blue and yellow head wrap. She settles into a plastic folding chair and waits for customers. Click on title to find link to Full Article

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