To support the Youth Leadership Program. Youth build compost and climate knowledge and leadership skills to address Bushwick’s environmental justice challenges. They ride their bicycles to pick up waste from businesses, bring it to BK ROT and partner groups, turn it into compost, and then help distribute it to participating gardens and farms in Bushwick, some of which are Levitt Foundation grantees.

To fund the Youth Food Justice Corp comprised of young people based at the Betances and McLaughlin Community Centers. They implement Shop Healthy and CHEFS for Change at bodegas; operate two farm stands; practice healthy cooking; learn about the food landscape of the Bronx, food policy and advocacy; and launch counter-marketing campaigns.

To support the Food Empowerment Initiative. Harlem youth learn about food justice, horticulture, sustainable garden design, as well as youth organizing. They operate a weekly youth farmers market, engage with the community through cooking demonstrations, staff information tables that provide residents with health information, guides to local resources, and healthy recipes. They also engage in counter-marketing work, including teaching workshops on marketing and branding tactics of large food chains and their impact on health and lifestyle choices.

To support the Green Team Internship Program. Teens plant, grow, and harvest plants grown in TCAH gardens; staff the farm stand; learn beekeeping, food safety, and composting; and plan and conduct a Harvest Fest for children and families.

To help support the Go!Chefs Teen Apprenticeship Program. Youth learn how to cook healthy recipes; visit restaurants, food retailers and urban farms; demonstrate their culinary expertise and teamwork in a competition called Restaurant SmackDown; and work in paying food-related summer jobs at Children’s Aid camps, urban farms, and in the food industry.

To fund the Youth Food Advocates initiative in which New York City high school youth take on food systems inequities including school food appeal, cafeteria environments, access to culturally-appropriate food, and lack of a major communications initiative to change the historically pervasive negative image of school food. The Advocates will meet weekly to build understanding of the City Council and Board of Education and their roles in school food. They will learn how to meet and work with decision-makers and other stakeholders, conduct policy issue analysis, plan campaign goals and strategies, build community cohesion, and work in a coalition. They will connect with their schools’ principals, school food managers, and cafeteria staff to tailor solutions to school food challenges in each of their schools.

To launch a Food Justice Fellowship designed to create a pipeline to careers and higher education for young adults ages 18 to 25 who acquired food justice, experience in their high school years. Incoming CUNY students in two 18-month paid fellowships will benefit from academic and experiential learning opportunities and mentoring by peers, faculty, and staff. ($90,000 in each of three years.)

To support Youth Food Educators and the Youth Food Countermarketing Hub. Teens learn about food industry marketing targeted to low-income, African American and Latino youth and its influence on the eating behaviors of young people. They use social media and art to conduct counter-marketing campaigns targeting unhealthy foods in their neighborhoods. The Countermarketing Hub (see URL above) contains educational tools, teaching materials, and examples of countermarketing art.

To support a new internship opportunity for NYC young people to become skilled advocates for urban agriculture and food justice. In collaboration with the Youth Food Justice Network at East New York Farms (a Levitt grantee), the youth will learn advocacy strategies, practice advocacy, and teach these skills at a year-end conference. They will help shape food systems policy and develop youth led solutions to food inequities.

To support the Youth Empowerment Pipeline which prepares youth of color to be leaders who will make a broad and lasting impact on food justice and urban agriculture in New York City. A goal is to enable graduates of the Pipeline initiative to go on to create and run their own branches at other like-missioned organizations, creating a web of opportunity and empowerment for youth. The Pipeline’s Youth Toolkit is now online at www.greenguerillas.org/yep-toolkit for other youth-led organizations to use as a resource.

To support six experienced Learn It Grow It Eat It graduates who care for South Bronx school gardens over the summer to keep them vital and ready as learning gardens for returning school children, and design a distribution plan to share the summer harvest with food pantries, soup kitchens, daycare centers, and senior centers.

To support the Youth Leadership Program. Youth work as counselors year-round on Saturdays and during the seven-week summer camp. They plan farming and educational activities for younger children and help lead hands-on activities like planting/growing/harvesting, cooking, compost and nutrition education.

To support young people who work at the two Bed-Stuy community gardens and farmers markets. Youth plant, grow, harvest and sell herbs and produce at the farmers markets and distribute them free of cost to neighbors in need. They also help build community by crafting meals directly from the gardens using the kitchens and serving free Sunday meals to farming neighbors of all ages.

To help fund Food4Life, a culinary skills training program for youth in supportive housing who have aged out of foster care, and the Food Action Team, which advocates for improvements in nutrition programming and food systems at Lantern and in the community.

To support the Center’s year-round food justice programs and activities for pre-teens including a summer youth farmers market, cooking demonstrations, growing food in community gardens, and distributing food to neighbors.

To fund new Youth-Powered Food Justice Internships. Youth will learn about food justice and community organizing, horticulture and garden maintenance, the history of the Melrose neighborhood and its community gardens. They will plan, promote, and present events including walking tours of 12 community gardens, Yolanda Garcia Park, and a roof top garden, and conduct healthy cooking demonstrations using food grown in the gardens. They will make presentations on food justice-related issues for monthly open community meetings for residents and members of the Huerta y Cultura garden network.

To fund the Food Justice Leadership Program at Beacon sites in Jackson Heights and Ozone Park. Youth learn about plants/soil ecosystems, sugar/fats found in processed foods and how to make healthy snacks. They explore food access and food inequity within their own neighborhoods, lead discussions on food policy, economic and cultural factors that impact access to healthy food, and map their neighborhood’s resources like CSA’s, farmers markets, retail stores, and food “deserts.”

To fund paid internships three seasons a year in which youth plant, grow, and harvest organic produce at the Red Hook Farms, operate two farmers markets, conduct cooking demonstrations, serve as ambassadors to visiting groups, and plan and host workshops for members of the Youth Food Justice Network.

To support the Food Access and Justice Project. Youth grow and harvest vegetables and herbs from their outdoor garden and indoor vertical hydroponic gardens to supply fresh produce year-round for their own lunches, for meals for children in after-school programs, the CSA farm share for neighborhood people, cooking classes and demonstrations, and food events for the community.

To support youth who live in five NYC Housing Authority developments (Lehman Village, East River Houses, King Towers, Wagner Houses, DeWitt Clinton Houses). Youth engage, educate, and empower other NYCHA residents to eat healthy. They plan and conduct hands-on intergenerational cooking labs and healthy food presentations including “mini pop-up cafe events” in their own neighborhoods as well as at other nonprofit organizations and public parks.

To support the Food Justice Collective, which enables young people to learn about health and food systems equity, lead advocacy/food justice campaigns and events, and use their voices to advocate for food justice within their communities.

To fund FruiTrees New York at Levitt Foundation grantee organizatons. Youth learn about urban fruit trees and their value in diversifying good nutrition, plant and care for fruit trees and bushes, and design a plan for community distribution of the harvest.

To support East NY Farms and the Youth Food Justice Network, a coalition of metro New York youth, who conduct skill-building days at farms and gardens across the City, and advocate for improved food policies.

To fund a pilot project, Vendor Power Summer Internships in New York City. Interns will learn about the history of street vending, the kinds of resources available to vendors to help them succeed, and how to conduct community-building and advocacy activities that lead to changes in food systems policies. They will conduct interviews with street vendors and with experts in the wider food system, attend committee meetings to develop strategic actions, and educate street vendors about the new 1116 law which will enable many more permits to be granted.

To fund the Intro to Ag Tech course for young adults who will learn about sustainable agricultural practices and how to: optimize farm systems using data analytics; design and build an automated smart farm; design food system solutions that demonstrate economically and socially sustainable farming practices and skills needed for careers in agriculture, technology, or construction.

To support the Bronx River Food Way. Youth help community people plant, grow, harvest, and prepare their own healthy foods. They organize special health and food events to encourage people to visit Concrete Plant Park and lead tasting tours along the Food Way.