Youth participants will care for ABC's space in the community garden, acquiring gardening skills and fostering a positive relationship with other members of the East Harlem community in the shared space.
Leader
Hannah Bernard
Location
1841 Park Avenue New York, NY 10035
Finding a healthy meal and a shady tree to sit under is not easy in East Harlem, a historically marginalized community. Access to nutritional food and safe green places is severely limited in this neighborhood, where the rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease are among the highest in all of New York City. East Harlem residents experience high incidents of hardships such as poverty, violence, and pollution, all of which significantly decrease quality of life.
Stop at the 125th street subway station and see for yourself.
However, ABC has created a paradise in El Barrio (aka East Harlem). Nestled among tall buildings and a busy city street, complete with the sounds of horns blowing and Latin music vibrating, our community garden chirps and sways in a breeze of peace and nature. Our community garden programs give children and families an opportunity to grow their own food and enjoy everything a garden has to offer. Digging in the rich soil, watching an eggplant grow, picking their very own basil to put in a dinner meal, spying on critters, sharing lunch with their fellow gardeners, doing yoga, and being creative and free. ABC's programs include a garden club for four and five year olds, gardening and nutrition classes for preschoolers, a youth food justice program, and an adult nutrition and gardening program which includes hands on cooking and yoga in the garden.
To achieve success, ABC will raise the funds necessary to purchase the proper gardening supplies and tools that the children need. Members of the Youth Services staff will collect all the materials, including gardening tools, soil, and seeds, always taking into account which plants and vegetables our children like best! Over the course of the spring and summer, children will make regular trips to the garden, using the brand new materials to cultivate their plants. If food is grown, children may use it to prepare healthy snacks and meals in Echo Park's kitchen. By spring 2017, ABC's plot of the community garden will be in full blossom and East Harlem will be a little bit brighter, all thanks to our dedicated youth!
It’s all about good health; taking care of the health of ourselves, each other, and our environment, and spreading healthy practices with everyone in the community. Working together in the garden, ABC's children and families learn about eating healthy, taking care of our environment, helping each other, all while getting to know their neighbors. ABC is making a difference in El Barrio by creating a space that is safe, peaceful, educational, healthy, and most of all, fun!