Our Mission
Backyard Growers cultivates healthy, connected, resilient communities and fights for food sovereignty by empowering people to grow their own food. We increase equitable access to vegetable gardens and the resources people and communities need to grow their own food.
Our Story
From the backyard of our intrepid founder to the greater, collective backyard of Cape Ann and beyond.
Backyard Growers was founded during the 2008 recession in response to a community need for increased food access and a desire to take an active part in the local food system.
When founder and artist Lara Lepionka created her own tiny urban farm at her home in downtown Gloucester, Massachusetts, her goal was to grow fresh produce for her family. The limitations of her outdoor space (1/100 of an acre!), the bounty she produced (thousands of pounds a year!) and the beauty of her garden ensured that others would notice and be inspired to grow their own food as well.
Lara began to teach her neighbors the basics of vegetable gardening, but she quickly realized that gardening knowledge was only one of many ingredients that people needed to grow food— access to lumber for raised beds, soil and compost, labor to build and fill beds, seedlings, seeds, information about soil safety in an urban setting and access to outdoor space were the major barriers that were preventing people from growing food themselves.
In response, Lara built partnerships with organizations like The Food Project and The Open Door and enlisted the help of friends and community members. Backyard Growers was born.
Since 2008, Our backyard has grown!
Backyard Growers now includes six community gardens, hundreds of residential gardens, a school garden at every Gloucester public school, numerous gardens at community organizations and GrowBag container gardens on front stoops, back porches and in driveways all over Cape Ann.
Through our consulting program, organizations and school districts beyond Gloucester now adapt Backyard Growers’ award-winning garden program models each year. In 2024, Backyard Growers took another step towards creating a strong, resilient food system by launching the Backyard Growcery, a weekly farmer’s market at Burnham’s Field in downtown Gloucester.
Backyard Growers 2024
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Alison DiFiore, MBA (she/her)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Alison wears many and all hats at Backyard Growers. As our Executive Director, she serves as a leader for our team and within the greater Cape Ann community.
Alison has worked at the forefront of social justice and small-scale agriculture for over 15 years. She is deeply committed to leveraging food and agriculture as a catalyst for changing the world and her career exemplifies a deep understanding of food systems on both community and global scales.
Alison’s work has spanned both coasts, most recently as the Director of Small Farms Initiatives at Apeel Sciences and as Director of Operations at Good Land Organics, both in Santa Barbara, California. Throughout her career, Alison has consistently applied equity and social justice principles to her leadership style and her approach to organizational management. In 2017 Alison received her MBA in Sustainable Business Systems from Presidio Graduate School.
She lives in Gloucester, MA, with her family.
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Katy Marques (she/her)
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Katy Marques is a key member of the team at Backyard Growers, leading fundraising and building strong relationships within our community. Katy identifies those who share a passion for community empowerment and are eager to support initiatives that strengthen our local food-system. She maximizes the impact of our organizations donations from individual, corporate sponsorships and grant funding.
Prior to her role at Backyard Growers, Katy demonstrated her leadership and organizational expertise as Operations Officer at Village Silversmith Ltd., where she excelled in staff management, policy development, and customer service resolution. Katy also has a background in marketing and business consulting. This past experience equips her with a versatile skill set and a deep understanding of organizational dynamics.
Katy has extensive roots in Gloucester and currently lives (and gardens) a hop skip and a jump from our headquarters with her husband and two young children. -
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Alexis Harwood (she/her)
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS & OPERATIONS
Alexis oversees the development, implementation, and management of The Backyard Growcery (a weekly farmer’s market launching in June 2024), in addition to facilitating direction and goal-setting for Backyard Growers’ enterprise projects.
Alexis has always had a strong attachment to how and where our food is grown as well as the footprint our food systems create and what they leave behind.
She is committed to the functioning ecosystem of a community. As the current owner of natural wine shop Helen’s Bottle Shop in Manchester, MA, she fosters relationships with farmers and food producers across Cape Ann and Essex County.
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Courtney Allen (she/her)
COMMUNICATIONS & OUTREACH DIRECTOR
Courtney drives marketing and community outreach. She has worked in communications for almost 15 years at both global PR agencies and as an independent consultant. Courtney started out volunteering for Backyard Growers after moving to Gloucester in 2017.
Courtney got her first taste of growing food while living in London, UK, where she was part of a group that founded an urban community garden inspired by the Transition Network.
She lives in downtown Gloucester with her family, and they grow their own food at Burnham’s Field Community Garden.
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Meg Tenczar (she/her)
SCHOOL PROGRAMS MANAGER
Meg oversees and implements all of Backyard Growers’ school garden programs in Gloucester Public Schools, engaging 2,000+ students in vegetable gardens and the cafeteria every year. She has a Masters of Education in Early Childhood and a B.S. in Natural Resource Studies. She is licensed to teach Pre-K through 2nd grade and is currently a member of the board of directors at Halibut Point State Park, where she has also previously been employed as a Park Supervisor and Park Interpreter.
She is a mom of three, a member of the West Parish PTO, and formerly a West Parish school garden parent volunteer.
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Campbell Prince (he/him)
DEVELOPMENT & PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
Campbell supports all fundraising and both community and school garden program implementation at Backyard Growers. He is a gifted writer, artist and chef.
Campbell has worked on three different New England based agriculture operations including Appleton Farms as an Environmental Educator and most recently at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment in Freeport, ME as a Dairy Intern. He has also worked as a manager at Fisherman’s Wharf Gloucester.
He is a recent graduate of Smith College with a degree in Creative Writing.
He lives in Gloucester, MA
