Urban farming group Harlem Grown partners with Toys for Tots
Hundreds of Harlem children will be the lucky recipients of toys collected during the annual U.S. Marines’ Toys for Tots Holiday Drive
By Michelle Ross
PIX
Dec 9, 2021
Excerpt:
Harlem Grown — a nonprofit organization that teaches urban farming and sustainability to young kids — is the group the toys will go to.
The organization has 12 urban farms in Harlem, with chickens roaming on some of them.
Executive director Nicole Engel said the group has a tight bond with the residents.
“We call ourselves a farm-ily, meaning that our families are really part of our larger community,” Engel said.
The group grows fresh, nourishing food on site and distributes it to families in need who live in the neighborhood, but they recognize that just growing and distributing food will not solve the lack of access in the community.
“It is also to educate people about the purpose of healthy food,” Engel said. “What that looks like, how to cook it so it tastes good and you want to eat it, to kind of change the cycle of poverty that’s existing in this community.”
