Urban Farm: Bed-Stuy Food Pantry
"We worked a long day in the rain putting together little hoop houses to keep the seeds we planted from getting too cold so they would germinate".
Cynthia Bensburg Reflection
Participating in Alternative Breaks on the Urban Environments trip has solidified
my interest in pursuing a career involved with the environmental justice field. This trip
has sparked new interests in me, such as the meeting point of where environmental crisis
lead to inequalities within human societies. I thought it was interesting that it also took an
environmental crisis to initiate change within a human landscape, such as the creation of
urban organic farms after Superstorm Sandy. Most people do not associate environmental
issues with issues between and within human communities. There has been disconnect
between people and their environments and only recently has there been any real attempts
at bridging that gap.
From working at The Healing Garden at Far Rock, I learned a lot about the
process of how to create a space that gives back to its community through many outlets. I
think the success of the urban farm can be attributed to the multifaceted approach the
people behind the initiative took in response to the multifaceted issues affecting the Far
Rockaway community. In order to combat environmental issues that tie in with human
health and economic inequalities within groups of people, it is important to approach the
challenge by looking at many possible solutions.
There are many causes to the issues we discussed and saw on this past service
learning trip. Food deserts and lack of public parks and open spaces are caused by city
planners and developers failing to meet the needs of the community. Because of the
visible land-fill within two blocks of the farm, the neighborhood gets a lot of traffic due
to the heavy influx of waste-disposal vehicles transporting trash to be buried, resulting in
large amounts of air pollution and high asthma rates. There also lacks education in regard
to aspects of human health affected by food choices resulting in high rates of obesity and
diabetes within the local population. In addition, there also lacks outdoor and
environmental education within public schools. Superstorm Sandy resulted in groups of
community members within the NYC area to be displaced and without access to clean
water and food—causing an immediate problem for local families. This is where there
was an increased need for food from local food pantries and soup kitchens and where the
Far Rock farm came in to supply fresh produce and meet that demand. Far Rockaway
was particularly hit hard because of its close proximity to both the Atlantic Ocean and the
bay. There are houses within the neighborhood that the farm was located in that are still
boarded up and falling apart because the people living within them left the area after the
storm. Although this storm resulted in the creation of a vacant lot, in the end it provided
for the land to be used for organic farming.
I thought it was a valuable experience to also talk to the people involved with the
program. Hearing different perspectives and different stories of involvement made the
program more than just a volunteer trip. I liked talking to John about how he got involved
within the group and how his career path was not completely on track with the
environmental movement, but through experiences he had while working for the Peace
Corps and the Horticulture Society he became involved. It brings hope to the movement,
that people from many different backgrounds and career professions can work together to
address environmental and societal inequality issues. I thought our team got an
interesting perspective the head farmer of Edgemere Farm, the farm next to the
community farm we worked on for the week. This farmer/business manager shed light on
the perspective of the private sustainable business owner who follows sustainable
business practices. It was interesting to hear his perspective on not only the
environmental movement and sustainable business decisions, but also on an analysis of
the community farm we worked on. He said it’s not sustainable to keep an entity or a
NGO going on mere grants, for money runs out. He stated that grants should be used to
start initiatives that have a long-term plan rather than only ones that just meet immediate
needs. Sustainable means that the entity needs to be able to exist for a long period of
time. It was also interesting to hear the needs of a small business following sustainable
business practices and their perspective on larger corporations within their same field.
Another interesting person that we met on our trip was an indigenous healer from the
local community. He came to the farm to talk with John about establishing a small section
of land where he could grow native herbs and plant species that are used in indigenous
health and spiritual remedies. When looking at the environmental movement within urban
areas, it never occurred to me to try to involve indigenous people with the reclaiming of
the land for natural or agricultural purposes. I think within the US, joining both the
environmental movement and Native American rights groups is an interesting
combination that could potentially create great strides in both fields of interest and create
pushes for equality. The final person I communicated with at the Far Rockaway farm,
besides the other people in my group, was a high schooler who was interning with the
farm. She had career aspirations within the culinary arts and was interested in the
growing of organic produce and the movement of food from the field to the table and
connecting people to their food. I thought the existence of an internship program within a
local high school was a really interesting aspect to education reform. Proper
environmental education within schools today is lacking in depth and analysis and there
is need for improvement in order to address climate change and environmental
degradation. I liked the idea of getting the youth within communities involved with the
bettering of their environments and that the farm provides an activity that requires focus
and keeps students involved in a productive process. I also thought the establishment of a
youth work force on the farm was an original method of keeping at-risk kids off the
streets and engaged in an activity that requires focus while also being educational.
Overall I learned a lot of valuable and applicable information and knowledge on
this trip and I think it is a valuable experience for people interested in the environmental
career field, whether that be through agriculture, environmental policy or science,
community engagement, educational reform, or business management. This trip has
inspired me to take a Horticulture class next semester because I enjoyed working and
learning on this farm so much.