Help Teens Promote Healthy Food Access in NYC

Dear friends and supporters,

The snow and cold of an NYC winter have done nothing to hinder the Teens for Food Justice volunteer team and their ongoing dedication to building our classroom farm's impact on the health of children and families in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Join us as we celebrate the positive change you have empowered these teens to build for a community in need!

Fresh Food for Our Community

In October, the teen volunteer team built three innovative, high-capacity hydroponic farming systems from scratch to double the crop yields of our pilot classroom farm in Bed-Stuy.

Today, while fields outside lie barren, the New Beginnngs classroom farm is nothing but green. From December to January alone, Teens for Food Justice volunteers and the middle school Green Team club planted, tended and carefully harvested 80 pounds of produce for distribution to New Beginnings Charter School families!

Imagine walking into an inner city classroom to see 700 edible plants growing heartily in mid-winter -- from tomatoes, cucumbers and pole beans to lettuce, kale, collard greens and herbs.

Youth in the Forefront of the Movement for an Equitable Food System

"As Teens for Food Justice volunteers, it is our mission to raise nutritional awareness and empower community members to make better decisions about their health by giving them the resources and knowledge they need to succeed." -- Dan, Malik & Gabi, teen volunteers

In addition to growing fresh food, the teen volunteers have been building their knowledge of food justice and cultivating key leadership skills they need to advocate for solutions to food inequity.

Teens spent their November service day learning about nutrition and the local food system from members of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Edcuation and Policy at Columbia University Teacher's College. They then learned how to communicate their newfound knowledge and express their mission to families by creating food justice PSAs for children and adults of the community.

In December, the teens shared their food justice message with more than 80 New Beginnings Charter School children and parents at the first teen-led harvest celebration of the year, leading them in nutrition workshops, food justice jeopardy games for children, and healthy recipe tastings using produce from the farm. At the end of the day, 25 families went home with fresh collard greens, swiss chard and cucumbers to use in healthy, affordable family meals they learned how to make from the teen volunteer team.

At the end of February, 100 more children and parents will gather in the farm for teen-led cooking classes, and to acquire dozens of practical tips for choosing the healthiest AND least expensive food items at the grocery store in order to better feed their families.

Building a Just, Sustainable Future

"What is food justice? Food justice means that everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from or what they look like should still get a chance to have a healthy meal." -- Abby, teen volunteer

Teens for Food Justice is growing! Your support has successfully doubled the amount of food we are able to grow for food insecure families per month and brought 20 passionate teens to the forefront of the local food justice movement. You've helped us to create a youth-led hub for science, sustainability and wellness education, and we thank you for your continued support as we strive to bring this program to dozens more at-risk communities!

In May, we will be hosting a Youth Service Summit for 80 teens from throughout NY to learn from the Teens for Food Justice team about food justice and environmental issues, and to engage in community service for the benefit of numerous local food access initiatives in the broader Bed-Stuy area.

To stay in the loop about our community impact on a regular basis, we welcome you to subscribe to our monthly newlsetter! http://studentsforservice.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=e73b11a2b65a7c13b601458b4&id=728577ed87

Links:

• Check out our service day blog to learn more about our impact!
• Meet our community -- view our community event photos on flickr!

“My favorite part about gardening is watching the transformation the plant goes though. You get feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment when a plant you tend to reaches maturity and is able to bring life to another living being.” -- Alyssa Vazquez

Alyssa volunteered with Teens for Food Justice last year as a senior in high-school and is now employed in our new Greenhouse Manager position at the New Beginnings Classroom Farm.

Teen volunteers and the 550 K - 7 students at New Beginnings Charter School have already experienced the excitement of this transformation from seed to harvest: last weekend teen volunteers harvested the farm's first crop of the year, a harvest of 300 strong and healthy lettuce plants!

Thanks to a big new farm refridgerator (thank you!), we stored the crops to keep them fresh, and Green Team students prepared baggies of lettuce to distribute to families at dismissal. Tasty, homegrown salads were savored all-around this weekend in Bed-Stuy.

Big News: Your support in June funded the build of three new hydroponic growing systems at the New Beginnings Farm, which have doubled our growing capacity in the classroom! These systems were born through the innovative design of a hydroponics enthusiasst and engineer and built from scratch by teen volunteers and mentors using basic, affordable materials sourced from local hardware stores and Amazon.

We now expect our total crop production for the year to exceed 5,000 heads of leafy greens, plus a big selection of herbs, and 12 cucumber and tomato plants yielding harvests throughout the winter (not to mention 150 strawberry plants!). The school's students are thrilled to be eating fresh food they have grown themselves, and the school community is proud to be able to provide a source of fresh produce for its families.

Links:

• Meet Alyssa, Our New Classroom Farm Manager!
• TFFJ in Designer Reed Krakoff's Fall Charity Benefit