A farm grows in East New York, Brooklyn
Harris said since COVID though, the farm is giving away food four times a week which translates to about 150 to 175 bags of produce sometimes.
By Ariama C. Long
Amsterdam News Staff
9/23/2021
Excerpt:
Iyeshima Harris is the co-director at Green Guerillas and project director for East New York Farms!, a subsidiary of United Community Center which has been serving the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn for over 60 years.
East New York Farms! is an “urban agriculture project” and nonprofit that runs a local youth internship program, food truck that prepares meals, food pantry, farmer’s market, and an onsite center at New York City Housing Authority’s Pink Houses.
Harris got her start in the food justice movement over 10 years ago. As a Jamaican native, she said, she struggled with the process of assimilation into a new culture and found comfort and connection through farming in her community.
The farm has local volunteers and gardeners from within the community. She said that the farm struggled because of a lack of volunteers last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The usual growing season starts in April, when the virus outbreak had hit its peak in 2020.
