Harlem Grown is opening a new 127 Street Farm to expand our programming within Central & East Harlem. Your support will help Harlem Grown to grow 5,000 pounds of produce by the end of 2017 across all our properties.
Leader
Vanessa Vincent
Location
77 W 127th Street New York, NY 10027
Harlem Grown is a youth development non-profit that inspires youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. We operate nine urban agriculture facilities throughout Central Harlem, and last year we provided over 2,200 pounds of fresh, locally-grown produce free of charge to local families in need.
We served over 2,700 youth on our last year, and in order to continue to provide an immersive and educational experience to all our youth participants, we have to expand our programming to our new 127 Street Farm.
This new farm on 127th Street between Lenox Avenue and Fifth Avenue will feature a two-story vertical hydroponics green house, which has the capacity to quadruple our production, and provide a living classrom where we can teach kids how STEM integrates with urban agriculture. With this new space, we plan on increasing our produce to 5,000 pounds by July 2017. We also plan on doubling our reach to youth in and around New York City, with special emphasis placed on neighborhoods in close proximity to the new urban farm space: East Harlem and areas of the South Bronx.
127 Street Growing Bed Construction
Impact Farm Construction & Opening
127 Street Farm Open for Educational Tours
127 Street Farm Saturday Enrichment Programming Begins (Health & Wellness lessons, Cooking Demonstrations)
127 Street Farm Food Production & Harvesting
127 Street Farm Food Distribution Regularly Scheduled
Harlem Grown is working to address issues and challenges faced by Harlem residents when it comes to accessing affordable, healthy food. Our target audience is primarily low-income Harlem residents. Most participants range in age from 6-14, 85% of which are eligible for free or reduced lunch, and 80% live in single-family households. Most of our children are either African-American/Black (61%) or Latino (28%). Many live in single-parent households, or are residents of temporary housing shelters through Harlem.
In Harlem, almost 1 in every 4 elementary school student is either overweight or obese. This rate is over 30% higher than the Manhattan average. Central and East Harlem lack healthy food options that are affordable and accessible. Harlem Grown strives to address these issues by providing both access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh food. We work collaboratively with our community to build farms and greenhouses and to grow fresh produce to nourish children and their families.
