Vito Marcantonio Community Peace Garden

The Vito Marcantonio Community Peace Garden, a $1.5 million RESO A Capital Project funded by District 8 Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office, is under construction and scheduled to be completed in December 2013. The rooftop greenhouse will feature a soil-based main level and a hydroponic mezzanine. PS 50 is seeking a grant to pay a Master Gardener/Teacher who will coordinate all greenhouse activities with the school community.

The Peace Garden project will provide classroom environments to learn about health, nutrition and sustainability concepts and practices while growing badly needed fresh produce.

The garden will serve a special needs population that ranges from extremely autistic to high-functioning general education students, with a large percentage of learning disabled and emotionally challenged special education students in the mix. The New York Center for Autism (NYCA) and the Children's Aid Society (CAS) share the building and partner with the school. All three partners will use the Peace Garden as a hands-on, experiential classroom to foster curiosity about plants, awaken a desire to lean about and connect with nature, and inspire a love of learning. In addition, Solar 1 an innovative, place-based sustainability education provider and the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation will help us integrate sustainability concepts with the Common Core Curriculum.

By utilizing and measuring energy inputs/outputs and the effects of different spectrum lighting combinations, we aspire to grow nutritious vegetables and fruits, teach marketable technical skills, and awaken dreams of future green careers in a post-Hurricane Sandy world. 

The Peace Garden project will be an on-going project. To achieve success, the project will require a wide range of supporters to maintain supplies and materials, but critically and immediately, it will need a Master Gardener/Teacher who will help train and coordinate with classroom teachers and the wider school community. The gardener will also assist in curriculum integration that weaves sustainability themes and concepts together with the Common Core Curriculum. The project will grow produce for the school cafeteria, flowers for special events, and host seasonal Farmers Markets for the community. Start dates depend upon the completion of construction, but we expect to start growing in March 2014 and roll out a full garden program in September 2014. 

There is an urgent moral imperative to create learning experiences that educate whole children and that integrate sustainability literacy and numeracy into the curriculum of their educational programs. East Harlem has been referred to as a beleaguered zip code and an epicenter of diabetes, defiance, and despair. The nature-deprived school community desperately needs programs that address critical health and nutrition issues and by making connections with our school gardens and the fresh produce we will grow, the community will receive some relief.

In addition, our partnerships with Solar 1 and the Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) will expand students' horizons by actively supporting school staff and students to make them more environmentally conscious, introduce them to future green careers, and increase awareness of post-Hurricane Sandy climatic challenges.