Teens For Food Justice, Inc.

TFFJ aims to empower the next generation of 21st-century urban farmers to grow large quantities of hydroponic produce inside their schools, and provide them the skills and training to be educators/advocates who lead their food-insecure communities towards healthier futures.

TFFJ teaches students in food insecure communities, where there is often a parallel lack of nutrition and health education. Students build hydroponic farms and learn how to plant, grow, and harvest fresh produce, which is used to teach them about health, nutrition, and food justice. Produce is eaten by the students and their peers in the school-wide cafeteria, and excess is made affordably available to the community. This teaches students about access, advocacy, and how they can lead change in their communities. Student evaluations from TFFJ in-school programs have shown that, after completing the program, 100% of students understand how nutritious food makes a positive difference in their health, 95% feel that they are more of a leader and advocate for food justice and 76% share what they’ve learned with friends and family. The program was designed to boost student and local community health outcomes thanks to increased exposure and access to healthier foods, improved understanding of nutrition and diet-driven health, and students’ enhanced academic and leadership abilities.

TFFJ operates dynamically with a small, hard-working team, a devoted board, and with teachers, parents, students, and administrators in each school partner community. Our hydroponics manager and farm team design and manage the farms, while our program team works within each school to develop after-school apprenticeship and curriculum day learning. Our development and outreach team works to expand TFFJ's voice, support and impact so that every year we can reach a greater number of students. The objectives of the online after school Food Justice Collective are: to increase students’ foundational knowledge and understanding of food justice and community health and health equity, and advocacy; to provide leadership skill-building and development opportunities for middle and high school youth; to cultivate students’ advocacy skills through structured activities and lessons culminating in student-led advocacy/food justice initiatives, projects, campaigns and/or events; and to engage students with their peers, community leaders, and elected officials in these conversations.

So far, TFFJ has 4 hydroponic farms, although closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, they are all fully functional, able to grow produce, and hosting the after-school apprenticeship program. Hundreds of students every year have learned, eaten, and taken their knowledge into their communities. We are currently working on expanding to two more farm sites in schools located in food-insecure communities.
When schools closed in mid-March, requiring TFFJ to shut down our school-based farms, we quickly began working as a convener between local commercial hydroponic growers and the food-insecure communities served by our farm sites, shifting from growing to sourcing high-quality produce and other healthy, nutritious foods, most needed by our schools’ communities, and distributing them free and affordably through partnerships with other CBOs. Between March and August, TFFJ facilitated the weekly supply of 600 pounds of fresh produce to our school partner communities, supplementing the grab-and-go food options primarily available to residents through COVID relief feeding programs.
In Fall 2020, TFFJ launched weekly and biweekly food distributions in four school partner communities: Kingsbridge, the Bronx; Brownsville, Brooklyn; Far Rockaway, Queens; and Lincoln Center/Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. Together, these four distributions benefit up to 1,000 New York City households weekly. Through this work, we not only continue to provide fresh, healthy food to the residents of our partner communities who struggle constantly with healthy food access and for whom food insecurity has spiked in the pandemic; we are building relationships with food providers that can be sustained after the COVID crisis, thereby establishing stronger networks and communication links within the emergency food systems in these neighborhoods that will yield benefits for years to come.
TFFJ also remains committed to continuing to support our students who have been adjusting to a remote learning environment for the past year. In response, we adapted our educational programming to a virtual format, allowing us to engage 474 students in remote STEM learning, food justice advocacy research, outreach, and problem-solving, and in growing food hydroponically at home both during the curricular and after school day. A hallmark event was our June 2020 virtual Youth Food Justice Leadership Conference, designed by a team of four TFFJ student interns, with assistance from student members of the CUNY Food Justice Leadership Fellowship Program, Youth Food Advocates, Rockaway Youth Task Force, and the DOE Office of Sustainability, which drew 100 viewers from four boroughs in a discussion, moderated by Keith Carr, City Harvest’s Manager of Policy and Government Affairs, on the critical need for a food secure NYC.