Teens for Food Justice fights food insecurity and diet-related disease through school-based, youth-led hydroponic farming. The organization works exclusively within NYC Title I secondary schools in food desert communities by growing hyperlocal, sustainably grown produce and building health equity for all New Yorkers in need.
Robust educational programming provides training for students to build and maintain indoor hydroponic farms, yielding produce served daily at school lunches and distributed to the surrounding community’s food-insecure residents. Since its founding in 2009, Teens for Food Justice has launched farms at 5 New York City public school campuses in 4 boroughs, growing more than 30,000 pounds of fresh, healthy produce that feeds more than 7,000 students annually.
A $148,000 Sun Club grant has helped the newest installation at the Murry Bergtraum Educational Campus, keeping Teens for Food Justice on track to expand to several other schools across the New York City area in years to come.