Help Teens Promote Healthy Food Access in NYC

Teens for Food Justice staff and board are very excited to announce that we will be opening our second farm program site this January!

Thanks to a steady growth of support and enthusiasm from individuals and fellow organizations who advocate for food justice and health equity, we are taking the first of many steps toward expanding our reach throughout the city.  

The new farm will be built by hand and tended to by a team of middle school students at Urban Assembly Unison (UA Unison) School, a Title 1 public school in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. 

Why UA Unison? 

Food insecurity is an everyday reality for UA Unison students and their families; 95 percent of the school is eligible for free lunch and 15 percent of families in its community live in transitional housing. Situated in a neighborhood that is experiencing pockets of rapid gentrification, lower-income families in Clinton Hill face the challenge of finding healthy, affordable food options in an area that has very few supermarkets and sources of fresh produce. 

Despite the challenges that UA Unison students face, they have developed a robust and close-knit community around after-school programming and faculty support. The group of students that will make up the Teens for Food Justice team will gain the expertise and confidence, through hands-on farming, nutrition education and food justice advocacy training, to motivate improved knowledge and resources for healthy lifestyle choices and good health among their families and peers.

If January sounds like a funny time to be building a farm, just remember that one of the coolest perks of indoor hydroponic farming is that our ability to grow food for communities extends throughout the year, even in the coldest months of a New York City winter.

UA Unison students will grow over 500 pounds of produce in their classroom farm systems over the course of a year! 

As we look forward to a new journey with the students at UA Unison, here are some words of enthusiasm from teens who became food justice ambassadors with Teens for Food Justice at Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School:

“It’s given me appreciation for vegetables because when we start harvesting, it smells SO good. The smell, the experience of working with the greens—it’s just delicious!”

“My favorite part was sampling the healthy food that chefs or our team members made to show that cooking vegetables is easy and delicious.”

 “I am more comfortable speaking and supporting other people in advocating for issues involving food injustice. I feel that spreading my knowledge will encourage others to spread their knowledge.”

Stay tuned in January for our stories and features of the new Teens for Food Justice youth team as they build the UA Unison Farm and begin growing their first crops! Thank you once again for your gifts supporting our work to bring food equity and empowered youth leaders to NYC.