[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lcSL2yN39JM#at=867]
If you ever feel powerless or overwhelmed by the challenges we are facing to reform our food system, just watch the video above. Steve Ritz, an educator from the poorest congressional district of America, the South Bronx in New York, talks with contagious enthusiasm and energy about how he founded the “Green Bronx Machine“.
His project taught children – many of them in foster homes or homeless – to garden and create “edible walls” which were first used in their schools, but the initiative quickly became hugely popular and they got invited to do more and more (lucrative) projects. Thus, not only did he teach them about where food comes from and about healthy living, he also gave them valuable job skills and increased attendance rate from 40 to 93%. What an inspiration!
My favorite quote: “If you can get kids to pollinate plants instead of each other, that is a huge success.” But there are more good ones in there. What is yours?
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