On April 8th, the AP environmental science class went on a meaningful educational trip to learn about agriculture. The trip included beautiful sights, such as live chickens, which nobody expected, trees, and a greenhouse.
Now, for a little bit of history about the team, Harlem Grown has existed for 14 years, founded by Tony Hillery. After seeing the children’s living conditions and lack of healthy food options, he decided to address food insecurity in this underserved neighborhood. By converting more than a dozen vacant lots in Harlem into urban farms, helping nourish food-insecure children. We didn’t get to meet him during the trip, but I’m sure he’s a cool dude.
We got to interview an employee, Ashley, who talked about her inspiration for joining Harlem Grown. “I’ve always been interested in nature and science, I went to school for biology, and I realized I liked being outside, and doing things outside, and talking to people, and I’m really passionate about this kinda stuff, so I like to share.” She’s been at Harlem Grown for 5-10 years.
We learned a lot during this trip. Ruben, a senior at AMS, said, “I learned how all this came to be, there’s literally a book about it right in front of me and I’m like oh, that’s kinda cool!” We also interviewed Mohammend, another student. “We’re experiencing different soil textures, you know…it’s a good start right now, man.”
Overall, this trip was a very exhilarating experience; it was educational, fun, and we all had a good time. If you’re interested in learning more about Harlem Grown and its cause, we recommend checking out their website at harlemgrown.org. Or you could just keep reading AMS articles, we’d really appreciate that.
