Neighbors Market!

Forgotten Foods and Youth is an internship program centered around high school students based in Stapleton who are impacted by food insecurity. We organize, train, and educate young change makers to regenerate Staten Island’s food systems, neighborhood spaces and culture. 

We are using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) to allow youth to research a problem that’s affecting them in their neighborhoods and make sure they have a say in addressing it. Their research is focused on how Stapleton's residents/community members can feel welcomed in the neighborhood's green spaces. After interviewing members of the neighborhood and community organizations, they will create an event called The Neighbors Market. This neighborhood-based project is student-led and will be a chance for students to demonstrate everything they’ve learned (hands-on skills, communication, YPAR research, and leadership) and share it with the neighborhood. The students will be able to create an event at a green space in Stapleton with direct feedback from the community.

This event will be held at the Hill Street Garden, a community garden located in Stapleton. We’ll invite members of the garden and community at large to join us. During this event, we’ll be providing access to free healthy, culturally-diverse food to the community. We will also start conversations to activate and mobilize neighbors around pressing local issues in their neighborhood and steps they can take to transform them. We aim to center the neighborhood’s lived experiences, culture, and perspectives so we can collaborate with them. 

We are requesting donations to support us in our mission to ensure North Shore communities and street corners, which are marked by high rates of food insecurity and adverse health outcomes, have access to healthy food. Stapleton is a neighborhood on the North Shore that has a dearth of affordable, fresh food stores. While Stapleton residents have access to a number of supermarkets, bodegas, and restaurants, most of these stores and restaurants do not sell culturally relevant and affordable healthy food.

On June 8, 2024, we are holding our Neighbors Market in Stapleton to distribute fresh produce and hold gardening and cooking demonstrations. A donation from you will help us supply the following items: fresh produce, pantry items, beverages, and prepared meals to help feed Stapleton families and provide food for the cooking demonstrations. 

When the world shut down, like it did with the pandemic, people did not stop - they came together. They started community fridges, created mutual aid groups, grew gardens, and cared for their neighbors needs. Our aim is to build upon the success of community fridges and mutual aid groups and extend it to the next generation. The need has become stronger to build new programs in Staten Island that are youth and neighborhood focused, outside of systems and institutions that have addressed parts of the problem but not its entirety. This project comes as a direct response to mobilize and build a local coalition of leaders, farmers, social entrepreneurs, artists, change-makers (and more!) who have developed a consciousness around investing in the preservation, restoration, healing, and liberation in their neighborhood. We do not want the work to just stop with us or exist for a moment; we desire to build the next generation of food justice leaders in Staten Island who will transform their community and beyond.