Neighbors and supporters celebrate fresh food on Myrtle

We were thrilled to celebrate our exciting new Food Access Initiative, Myrtle Eats Fresh, with community members, supporters and elected officials this week. Held at the Myrtle Avenue Farm Stand, which kicked off in July, the event provided an opportunity for project supporters to meet gardeners, community chefs and farm stand staff who have been working with us to make positive changes in the community around access to fresh and affordable produce. Guests included New York Community Trust and Brooklyn Community Foundation, Assemblymen Lentol and Jeffries, as well as representatives from Congressman Towns and Borough Prez Markowitz’ offices.

The Myrtle Eats Fresh initiative includes a number of projects that engage community members in activities to improve access to healthy, affordable food on Myrtle Avenue, and in the surrounding neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Last fall, MARP received a three-year grant through the ‘Community Experience Partnership’ (CEP) to support and expand its Food Access Initiative. The CEP, a national initiative, aims to support projects that specifically engage the talents and energy of older adults for the benefit of their communities. In New York City, The Atlantic Philanthropies is partnering with the New York Community Trust and United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH) to develop new program models that engage older adults to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities, and MARP is one of three grantees, which also include Isabella Geriatric Center and East New York Farms!.

With the CEP grant, MARP welcomed Kassy Nystrom to our team, formerly of GrowNYC, to manage and expand our food access programs, which started with seed funding from Brooklyn Community Foundation in 2008 with the founding of the Fort Greene CSA, and grew to include the creation of the Ingersoll Garden of Eden in 2009. Myrtle Eats Fresh has expanded that community garden, built in collaboration with Ingersoll residents, and will start new gardens at both Whitman and Farragut in the upcoming seasons. Other Myrtle Eats Fresh projects include the Myrtle Farm Stand, which takes place every Thursday in front of the Ingersoll Community Center (177 Myrtle Avenue) from 3:30pm - 6:30pm fthrough October 28th and is staffed by three youth and two elders from the neighborhood. MARP also launched a ‘Community Chef’ program, where several residents who have a passion for healthy cooking were trained as certified Community Chefs and now conduct cooking demonstrations at neighborhood events. In fall 2010, MARP will begin the process of forming a neighborhood ‘Healthy Food Task Force’, bringing together representatives from interested organizations and other groups to help synergize efforts around improving food access in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.