Edible Schoolyard New York

Edible Schoolyard NYC partners with public schools to build gardens and kitchen classrooms where children can engage in hands-on learning. Our goal is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and environment required to make healthier choices and change the way they eat…for life.

Established in 2010, Edible Schoolyard NYC is a nonprofit organization committed to bringing Alice Waters’ vision to New York City public schools as an effective solution to our childhood obesity crisis.

Over three million New Yorkers citywide live in communities where access to fresh fruits and vegetables is tragically limited. Low-income families who lack the time and resources to eat healthier must unfairly settle for cheap, processed food options that ultimately lead to battles with obesity, especially amongst our children.

Today nearly 50% of NYC’s public elementary school students are obese or overweight. They’re part of the first generation of children forecast to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. A childhood plagued by obesity could result in an adulthood hampered by heart disease, cancer, diabetes or high blood pressure.

When Alice Waters, acclaimed restaurateur and organic food pioneer, created the first Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California in 1995, she knew the best way to teach children the connections between food, health and the environment was by integrating an edible education program into our schools’ everyday curriculum.

As the first official Edible Schoolyard affiliate in the Northeast, Edible Schoolyard NYC partners with public schools in low-income areas to build, maintain and staff garden and kitchen classrooms—all right on the school premises. We equip students with the hands-on knowledge, skills and environment needed to reverse the obesity trend and teach kids organic, healthy eating habits they can enjoy and share for an entire lifetime.