the table
Aquidneck Island’s First Food & Community Hub.
Spanning nearly 2,700 square feet, The Table: A Food & Community Hub brings together a vibrant marketplace, children’s learning center, wellness programming, and event space—centrally located between Middletown and Newport.
It sits at the intersection of high visibility and high need: adjacent to Bay View Mobile Home Park, a RIPTA transportation facility, the East Bay bike path, and proximate to the CCRI campus, Naval Station Newport, and North End neighborhoods, such as Newport Heights. Farmers, fishers, and makers will have stable, year-round sales channels. Families will have a place to bring their children to learn about food in a way that is joyful, hands-on, and free of stigma. All community members will gather for wellness workshops, cultural food programming, and connection over a shared meal.
Amount raised toward our $100,000 Goal
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Why It Matters
RI households face food insecurity
children in Newport live in poverty
food eaten in RI that is locally sourced.
There is currently no permanent, year-round local food hub on Aquidneck Island.
These are not abstract statistics. They describe our neighbors. And the shared challenge The Table addresses alongside our community.
Our Impact
For a decade, Aquidneck Community Table has worked to ensure everyone on Aquidneck Island has a seat at the table. We’ve brought this vision to life through rainy day farmers’ markets, tending community gardens alongside our neighbors, leading school programs that teach students how to grow food, and nurturing new farming businesses as they take root in our community.
In the past year alone, 41,880 people have visited our markets. More than 400 students have built hands-on connections to growing food. And 46 local businesses have strengthened their livelihoods through what we’ve created together.
The Table is what the last ten years were written to build.
What Your Gift Does
Every dollar raised through this campaign goes directly toward building The Table:
Individual and corporate sponsorship packages available.
The Table Will:
- Expand and stabilize fresh-food access through a year-round market and distribution site;
- Increase participation by locating services along a major transportation corridor;
- Provide valuable and reliable sales channels for local growers, makers, and fishers;
- Offer indoor and outdoor programming, including youth education, community meals, wellness and gardening workshops, and other special events;
- Strengthen emergency food distribution efforts, when needed, on Aquidneck Island;
- Foster stronger collaboration among local groups, offering space for gathering and resource sharing;
- And improve operational efficiency through centralized service delivery.
Most importantly, The Table will be a community gathering space – a place where people connect to nourish their bodies, minds, and spirit. Food is power. It shapes culture, builds community, strengthens resilience, and lays the foundation for a vibrant future.
A Note On This Moment
For The Next Chapter
We are launching this campaign in a challenging time for nonprofits and for the communities we serve. Federal funding for food assistance is under pressure. Food insecurity is rising. And local organizations like ours are being asked to do more with less.
We are not deterred. If anything, this moment clarifies the necessity of what we are building. A community-owned, self-sustaining food hub is exactly the kind of resilient, local infrastructure that becomes more important when national systems falter. The Table is designed to be here in ten years, twenty years, and beyond — because it will be built and sustained by the community.
Your gift is not just for this year. It’s for the next chapter.
What 2030 Looks Like
It looks like a grandmother picking up fresh vegetables on her way home from the bus stop. It looks like a three-year-old discovering that tomatoes grow on vines, not shelves. It looks like a first generation farmer selling out her whole crop, in a warm and welcoming marketplace. It looks like neighbors learning each other’s names over a shared meal, in a space that belongs to all of them.
By Year 5: The Table will serve 50,000+ visitors annually. Fifty-five local businesses will have stable, year-round sales channels. More than 900 neighbors will participate in wellness programs each year. Four thousand children will come through the play + learning center. And ACT will generate the earned income needed to sustain The Table, and the community it supports.
Give now and claim your seat.
“The Table is the answer to the question that has shaped ACT’s work for nearly a decade: what would it look like if every person on Aquidneck Island truly had a seat at the table? Your gift makes that answer real.”
