"In December of 2016, fourteen Rhode Island College students embarked on a service-learning trip to Conocoto, Ecuador, where they would participate in an agricultural development project. The rest was history."

The Roots Project is a non-profit organization based in Providence, Rhode Island ran entirely by young millennial women. We all come from different backgrounds, have different career interests, but we have all been able to come together for one common goal: empowering at-risk children to be healthy,  hard-working, and active members in their communities.

 Our concept was sparked out of a Sociology Class offered at Rhode Island College focused on a service-learning project at an orphanage in Ecuador. We spent almost three weeks living at the orphanage with the children, house moms, and all of the staff while we worked on our hydroponics and gardening projects. The experience we had on our trip was truly life-changing for all of us. The projects we were working on were to help them become more self-sufficient and economically sustainable while providing fresh produce for the children and house moms to eat, making them healthier and stronger.

But, as days went on we all saw first-hand that teaching children how to grow their own food was actually teaching them valuable life lessons about hard work, perseverance, and a little something about tender love and care. It was then when we quickly realized that we weren't just building gardens, we were building futures. These are still the same sentiments and values that serve as the foundation for The Roots Project. Since then, we have worked endlessly to establish our organization and ensure funding for these projects that we believe will make a true impact for these kids. It all started with simple gardening and hydroponics and an orphanage in Ecuador, but we have dreams of creating programs that can be used in orphanages around the world; and we aren't stopping until we do it.