Amanda Dye ’24 finds common ground with Main South

Growing up in Sherborn, Massachusetts, Amanda Dye ’24 would attend an annual event in which local farmers invited the public to tour their farms and engage in conversations about their operations. Those visits accomplished two important things, she says. They exposed her to the “origin stories” of how our food is sourced and connected her more closely to her community.

Since enrolling at Clark, Dye’s immediate surroundings have changed from semi-rural to urban, but the inspiration generated by those early farming experiences endures. For the past three years, Dye has worked with Worcester Common Ground, a nonprofit organization that pursues sustainable neighborhood improvements through affordable housing initiatives, economic development, educational opportunities, and the cultivation of green spaces to promote access to locally sourced healthy food.

Much of her work involves overseeing the Jaques Ave. Community Bioshelter: a greenhouse that operates as an indoor ecosystem for year-round mushroom growing. The bioshelter, located a short drive from Clark, is surrounded outside by raised vegetable beds and a small fruit orchard where Main South families cultivate and harvest their own fresh produce during the warmer months. Each gardener typically tends to two or three raised beds to put food on their tables and sometimes sells to local farmers markets in areas where healthy foods can be difficult to obtain.

Dye took a special interest in growing mushrooms in her first year after hearing noted Clark mycologist David Hibbett deliver a lecture about fungi in her Biology 102 class. With Hibbett’s encouragement, she secured a position at Fat Moon Farm in Westford, Massachusetts, a thriving operation that cultivates mushrooms using only organic materials. “I went to volunteer at the farm, and on the first day they offered me a job,” she recalls with a laugh.

Bioshelters are rare in Massachusetts; Worcester’s was launched in 2015 as a collaboration between Worcester Common Ground and WPI. The bioshelter and raised beds are located near Chandler Elementary and Jacob Hiatt schools, supplying multiple opportunities to introduce area students to the good work being done there. It’s one of seven greenspaces that WCG operates throughout the city, including community gardens, a playground, and a rooftop hydroponic greenhouse.

This particular swath of green amid the sprawl of brick and concrete is referred to as “the oasis” by Worcester Common Ground workers, Dye says. With good reason. During growing season, the beds erupt with fresh vegetables and trees are weighted with ripe plums, peaches, pears, apples, and sour cherries.

Dye is a year-round habitué of the bioshelter, assuming any number of roles to keep things running smoothly — from the planting of seedlings to maintaining the composting and rainwater collection systems. When the gardens experience an overflow of fruits and vegetables, Dye brings the surplus produce to community refrigerators — known as Woo Fridge — that have been placed in low-income neighborhoods across the city to make healthy food available to people who otherwise may not have access to it.

“It’s an awesome cycle that we have,” she says. “We aim to get people directly connected with good food.

“When you say that you’re a Clark student, it’s something that’s recognized in the community,” Dye adds. “Worcester Common Ground has had a lot of Clark students work there over the years.”

Dye, a global environmental studies major, is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at Clark in the fall. Her work in Worcester already has taken on many forms, including helping Worcester residents identify gas leaks in their neighborhoods.

She’s eyeing a future in community development, perhaps by starting her own nonprofit organization. Her twin goals are to empower and connect.

“Hopefully this would be somewhere in New England with a farming component where we would address food insecurity,” she says. “I would want to create a nonprofit where there wouldn’t be any barriers for people to access the space, learn something new, and enjoy being together as a community.”