Dear community,
The Hattie Carthan community garde,farm and its two markets wish to take this opportunity to thank you for the support shown to our small scale food justice project.
We ask you to move your understandings beyond charity and give to FOOD JUSTICE so that local small scale agricultural projects led by women farmers and people of color can begin to advance ideas for social change and equity. Your support helps urban farmers and youths to grow,distribute and provide basic food and justice education in the communities that we live.
BACKGROUND:
The Hattie Carthan garden garden,farm & Community Farmers Market is one of the largest and oldest people of color led projects in NYC. Our garden,farm and two markets are located in Bedford Stuyvesant.Brooklyn.
The initial garden located at Lafayette and Marcy Avenue, was formed in the 1970's as a place where low income residents can have access to greenspace, expand their knowledge of plants and grow fresh food in Brooklyn. The design of the garden tells our story of the importance of food production.
The garden has been a public space that is multigenerational and multicultural for over two decades in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. The garden is named after a prominent Brooklyn environmentalist who was instrumental in planting over 1,500 trees in Brooklyn. In the mid-90s the garden received preserved landmark status as a result of the community's organizing efforts and became an Operation Greenthumb Parks & Recreation site. The Hattie Carthan Garden is an important public space with its own legacy and history.
Over the past decade, the Hattie Carthan Community Garden has reinvented itself by combining the old fashioned community gardening approach with urban agriculture and reclaiming blighted parcels of land to grow and distribute food in its two community based markets. The two markets employ a service model for building healthy community and has an alternative distribution system which offers community residents and seniors in the neighborhood fresh foods,eggs and herbs at a shockingly low price...
The garden now operates a working educational herb farm, a recently built children's learning garden, mushroom patches, two hoophouses, two new chicken coops,five three bin composting systems, a vermi composting system. Our hoop-houses allows gardeners to extend the growing season, grow food without chemicals, increase yield and educates children about growing food from seed.
Livestock raised on the farm provides eggs to community residents, income for the farm as well as manure for the plants. Using manure and compost eliminates our dependence on chemical/synthetic fertilizers. Our advocacy and food justice programs help educate a new group of food leaders and empower youths and others working within the food system
Since 2009, the two market have distributed over forty thousand pounds of fresh, local food to community residents . All of this food is sourced by local farmers operating within 150 miles of the garden. The garden provides valuable support to Lancaster county farmers and upstate NY farmers. Around 1/6th of all the food distributed comes from the garden and farm. The garden.farm and its two markets provides community residents with cooking demonstrations, healthy eating and food justice workshops.
The Hattie Carthan market also hosts a PLAYSTREETS during the summer months on a dangerous street facing the market. That effort combines food and fitness programming for children and increases access to fresh food for residents that live in the community. Each Saturday, the street becomes alive with cooking demonstrations, dance classes, crafts workshops, free fruit for neighborhood residents, back to school giveaways and more.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE DOING THIS WORK IN OUR COMMUNITY?
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