Lenox Garden Club’s GCA Founders Fund Finalist Grant Supports Roots Rising Program to Empower At-risk Youth in Pittsfield, MA.

Training in Farming, Food Nutrition, and Business Practices Help Educate and Encourage Teens to Pursue a Promising Future in the Growing Arts.

April 29, 2026

By: Stacey McCarthy

In 2020, Lenox Garden Club received a $10,000 GCA Founders Fund finalist grant in support of Roots Rising’s work with at-risk youth. The mission of Roots Rising, located in Pittsfield, MA, is to empower youth through food and farming.  Initially, the funds were to help purchase a food truck, but the rise of COVID prevented its use.  Roots Rising expanded their vision: to create a working farm with an educational center to both educate and train youth and to provide food for their families. 

With GCA’s permission, the club used the grant to help Roots Rising buy a 6.5-acre property which has been cleared for planting this spring. They have built a propagation house and an equipment shed and erected the Hub: the education center, with a commercial kitchen and produce preparation area, plus living quarters for apprentices. The foundations are dug for a climate regulated 90ft x 30ft high tunnel to extend the growing season. 

Planting has begun.  In addition to garlic, planted ahead of the first frost, planned plants include beans, peas, cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, melons, carrots, radish, beets, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, kale, alliums, chard, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. The vegetables will be part of a Roots Rising CSA and sold at their teen-managed farmer’s market which also sells produce from local farms.

This year, Lenox Garden Club members approved an additional grant of $5,000 for Roots Rising. Along with a grant from a private foundation, the funds will purchase an automation system to manage air flow and irrigation in their high tunnel.