Brooklyn Rescue Mission (BRM), located in Bed-Stuy is one of the few food justice organizations in Brooklyn committed to community health, food and economic challenges in daily life. In addition to East New York Farms and Added Value, the BRM farm is one of the few community urban food agriculture projects in the city.

In addition to running a food pantry and a farmer’s market, BRM runs a farm in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 2005, BRM created partnerships with the New York City environmental and food justice organizations to break ground on an abandoned lot behind the Mission in order to grow fruits and vegetables for pantry recipients. The site, once a neighborhood garbage dump, was transformed into an urban oasis that has served several hundred people since its creation. The farm has become a community gathering space and a classroom to teach neighborhood youth about food growing and community service.

Now, due to real estate development pressures, the farm is under threat of eviction. No longer a vacant lot and a dumping ground, it has become desirable to others. It is in danger of being sold by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to developers to repay a debt incurred by Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development/Direct Building Management.

Sign the petition and help save the farm!

A few people in the PLG community (CSA members and non-members) have been doing some preliminary planning around forming a Food Coop in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area. CSA board member Karen Oh and member Sara James are actively leading the effort and asking any of you who are interested in joining this effort to email karen@houseofcakes.com to join the PLG Food Coop email list. There is a planning meeting scheduled for August 26, 2009 (location TBA) which we will send out more information in a separate email.

Why a Food Coop?

It’s easy to think that another grocery store might do the trick, but food coops benefit the community in more than just bringing food to the consumer. Read the rest of this entry »

The outreach night was a big success! Board members Darren and Pavani and members Maya and Barbara set up and tabled the event. They had fliers and put out the leftover vegetables and took donations to sample Woodbridge Farms bounty. Cabbages, peaches, herbs, potatoes, even some garlic made it out to the general public which was a huge draw for people. Seeing, touching, and smelling the food really made a difference and for people who were in a hurry but took a brochure were also given a free peach for the road. For people who expressed some more interest a ‘generous sample bag’ was offered for a $5 donation. All proceeds will support the outreach materials and low income shares. Almost 200 brochures were given out and about $60 was collected.