East New York Farms Improving Health Through Local Farming
Aug 3rd, 2008 by Jervey
[Photo from Sudbury/Childrens Press Line]
A truly wonderful story by the Daily News and Childrens Press Line about East New York farms. We’d say this qualifies as a must read:
If passengers looked outside the No. 3 train as it roared above Livonia and Schenck Aves., they would see a train station, apartment buildings - and rows of lush vegetation.
That vegetation is part of East New York Farms, which runs several community farms, producing affordable, fresh, organic fruits and vegetables in the poor neighborhood, where obesity is rampant and access to healthy, affordable food is limited.
“It keeps us off the streets, and gives us something positive to do. A lot of the kids around us are getting into gangs and stuff like that,” said Sakinah Abdul, 15, an intern at the farm.
In East New York and New Lots, three out of 10 adults were obese, and were nearly twice as likely to have diabetes as those in the rest of Brooklyn - and New York City as a whole - in the city’s “Take Care New York” profile figures for 2006.
East New York Farms hopes to help solve some of these problems.
Get the rest here.