A Kid's Guide for urban resilience and community connectivity through FOOD
School Curriculum
Feeding resilience starts with learning! Most schools do not have a food education curriculum, but you can petition your school administration to implement one. Edible Schoolyard NYC provides critical food curriculum resources such as learning-to-grow and eating-healthy lesson plans, plus links to local community farms. https://www.edibleschoolyardnyc.org
Food Equity & Racial Justice
School curriculum is not complete without addressing food equity and racial justice. Food Solutions New England develops strategies to build a just, sustainable and equitable food network, including immersing students in food equity programs at colleges. https://foodsolutionsne.org/what-we-believe/
Farm to School Distribution
Many programs provide a distribution map for farm produce to get to the menu of school cafeterias. The National Farm to School Network advocates for farm to school cafeteria distribution, as well as Native American sustainable farming based on traditional foods and heritage seeds. http://www.farmtoschool.org
School Gardens
Students can grow produce in school gardens! A number of NYC schools have street-level, rooftop or hydroponic gardens for students to learn about planting, growing cycles and healthy, seasonal eating. GrowNYC provides grant funding, technical assistance and teaching workshops. www.grownyc.org
Community Gardens
Students can encourage their families to visit community gardens or even participate in growing! Green Thumb, a national community garden program, provides a map of over 600 New York City Parks public community gardens across the five boroughs. https://greenthumb.nycgovparks.org/gardensearch.php
Urban Farms
Often produce grown at these gardens is for sale. The Queens County Farm Museum sells its fresh farm produce, eggs, honey and flowers all summer long. Founded in 1697, everything is grown on their 47-acre farm right in the middle of Queens! Students can petition school administration to arrange class field trips to the farm. https://www.queensfarm.org
Farmer’s Markets
Farmer’s markets selling fresh, seasonal produce grown in areas surrounding urban centers is a great way to stock up on seasonal produce. New York City Farmers Market provides a map of all farmer’s markets in the five boroughs. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/cdp/nyc-farmers-markets.pdf
Food Pantries
Food pantries distribute both shelf-stable and perishable free food. Kids can benefit from pantries in various ways: picking up food items for your family, offering to bring some pantry items to a home-bound neighbor, or even volunteering directly with the pantry on distribution days. Some permanent food pantries provide food daily, while pop-up pantries tend to distribute food on a fixed schedule - one a month for example.. A quick google search of “food pantries near me” will show both permanent and pop-up food pantries in your area. Kids interested in creating their own pop-up pantry can look at the Little Free Pantry program, which has converted Little Free Libraries to community drop-off boxes. This program has the added benefit of providing both food and reading materials to communities in times of crisis and plenty. https://www.littlefreepantry.org
Rooftop Beehives
Honey bees are vital for agriculture and pollination of all kinds, even in urban environments. Urban rooftops are the perfect location for beehive ecosystems. Host a Beehive connects schools, businesses and apartment buildings with beekeepers who can install and care for a beehive on your rooftop. Honey harvested from the rooftop beehive tastes delicious! http://www.bees.nyc/host-a-hive
Home Cooking
Home-cooked meals are the healthiest, freshest and best tasting! Kids can encourage their families to help them cook a favorite recipe or try a new one. Asking older family members for cherished recipes is a great way to continue a family tradition. Asking a neighbor is another way to share cultural recipes and make someone feel proud. And the best gift of all is sharing a home-cooked meal with friends and loved ones. There are many free online recipe sites - Allrecipes is just one of hundreds of online sites to explore. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/
Food Festivals
Food festivals, whether cultural or seasonal, celebrate traditional and joyous dishes. While some foods are not that healthy - fried Italian zepoles for example - in small quantities they taste delicious and give us wonderful memories of outdoor seasonal fun. Many other dishes are actually extremely healthy - fresh ceviche or a smoothie made only from fresh tropical fruit. The Queens Night Market is the ultimate food festival, with over a hundred culturally diverse food vendors and thousands of New Yorkers of all ages enjoying good food, fun and fresh air. http://queensnightmarket.com
