Teens for Food Justice

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Teens for Food Justice

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Food justice for equity through in-school hydroponic farms and youth-led advocacy programming across NYC. Instagram:

Our after-school program trains youth, ages 12 to 18, to build and maintain indoor hydroponic farms that serve as local sources for fresh food and centers for nutrition and health education in their schools and communities. Students use cutting-edge hydroponic technology to grow substantial quantities of crops for their school, families, and neighbors. They are trained to become health and nutrition ambassadors who teach skills for healthy eating, shopping, cooking, fitness and lifestyle behaviors to others. Through their own, their peers’, their families’ and their neighbors’ involvement, these young leaders will be the catalysts for a grassroots food justice movement in their community. The Need:
Teens for Food Justice addresses one of NYC’s most critical challenges: getting nutritious food and health resources to those most in need. Sixteen percent of New Yorkers are food insecure and undernourished; 1 in 4 children live in households lacking sufficient food. And, even when healthy choices are available, they are often underutilized due to lack of familiarity with how to shop for and prepare the food. The TFFJ youth-led program brings these resources to food desert neighborhoods, exposing families to foods and lifestyle habits that improve community health, while building the next generation of advocates in the fight for food justice.

10/13/2026

What if the farm were already in the school? 🌱

October is National Farm to School Month. Farm to school usually means bringing food from local farms into schools. At TFFJ’s school-based hydroponic farms in New York City and Denver, students grow the food, and it goes from the farm to their school cafeteria.

Ms. Karla Jean Peterkin-Taylor, Cafeteria Manager at DeWitt Clinton Educational Campus, and her team serve it in garden salads and salad bowls.

“It gives a new vision and new birth to the school,” she said of the farm.

This farm is one of the school-based hydroponic farms TFFJ operates in New York City and Denver.

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¿Y si la granja ya estuviera dentro de la escuela? 🌱

Octubre es el Mes Nacional de la Granja a la Escuela. Por lo general, “de la granja a la escuela” se refiere a llevar alimentos de granjas locales a las escuelas. En las granjas hidropónicas que TFFJ opera en escuelas de la ciudad de Nueva York y Denver, los estudiantes de cada escuela cultivan los alimentos, que van de la granja directamente a la cafetería escolar.

Ms. Karla Jean Peterkin-Taylor, gerente de la cafetería del DeWitt Clinton Educational Campus, y su equipo la sirven en ensaladas verdes y en tazones de ensalada.

“Le da una nueva visión y un nuevo nacimiento a la escuela”, dijo sobre la granja.

Esta granja es una de las granjas hidropónicas que TFFJ opera en escuelas de la ciudad de Nueva York y Denver.

10/08/2026

Last school year, 2,272 students took part in TFFJ programming. 🌱

They learned at TFFJ farms throughout the school day and even beyond—during classes, in clubs, and through paid internships. What did they grow, and where did the produce go? Our 2025-26 Impact Report has the answers.

Come see what students accomplished.
Tap the link below to read the report.
https://teensforfoodjustice.my.canva.site/tffj-impact-report-fy26/

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El año escolar pasado, 2,272 estudiantes participaron en los programas de TFFJ. 🌱

Aprendieron en las granjas de TFFJ durante toda la jornada escolar e incluso fuera de ella: en clases, en clubes y en pasantías remuneradas.

¿Qué cultivaron y adónde fueron los productos? Nuestro Impact Report 2025-26 contiene las respuestas.

Ven a ver lo que lograron los estudiantes.
Toca el enlace para leer el informe.
https://teensforfoodjustice.my.canva.site/tffj-impact-report-fy26/

10/02/2026

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! 🌱

We work to reflect students, families, and communities at our partner schools through the food we grow. That includes cilantro, radishes, and mint, crops that show up in kitchens across Latin America.

Swipe to see dishes TFFJ students made: tomato salsa, beef tacos, and mint ice cream.

What would you make with these ingredients? Tell us in the comments.

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¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! 🌱

Trabajamos para reflejar a los estudiantes, las familias y las comunidades de nuestras escuelas asociadas a través de los alimentos que cultivamos. Eso incluye el cilantro, los rábanos y la hierbabuena, ingredientes presentes en las cocinas de toda Latinoamérica.

Desliza para ver los platos que prepararon los estudiantes de TFFJ: salsa de jitomate, tacos de carne y helado de menta.

¿Qué prepararías con estos ingredientes? Cuéntanos en los comentarios.

09/30/2026

Ms. Redden's 6th graders at The Scholars' Academy () made their own "How to Seed on the Farm" brochures! 🌱 Each one walks you through the steps they follow on this hydroponic farm, from washing hands and gloving up to writing batch tags, seeding grow plugs one by one, and placing trays in the germinator.

Could you seed a tray using their instructions?

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Estudiantes de sexto grado con la Sra. Redden de The Scholars' Academy crearon sus propios folletos sobre "Cómo sembrar en la granja". 🌱 Cada folleto explica los pasos que siguen en su granja hidropónica, desde lavarse las manos y ponerse los guantes hasta escribir las etiquetas de lote, sembrar los tacos de cultivo uno por uno y colocar las bandejas en el germinador.

¿Podrías sembrar una bandeja siguiendo sus instrucciones?

09/24/2026

More room to grow! 🌿

The hydroponic farm at The Scholars' Academy () already gives students room to learn and grow. Now they have a second space just steps away. Melissa Redden, Farmer-Educator, led the creation of a dedicated farm classroom with its own propagation station.

What's propagation? It's growing a new plant from part of an existing one. Here, students learn how the process works, side by side with what they learn in the farm.

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¡Más espacio para crecer! 🌿

La granja hidropónica de The Scholars' Academy () ya les brinda a los estudiantes un espacio para aprender y crecer. Ahora tienen un segundo espacio a solo unos pasos. Melissa Redden, la Agricultora-Educadora de la granja, lideró la creación de un aula dedicada a la propagación.

¿Y qué es la propagación? Es cultivar una planta nueva a partir de una parte de una planta existente. Aquí, los estudiantes aprenden cómo funciona el proceso, junto con lo que aprenden en la granja.

09/17/2026

Our 2026 Impact Report is ready, and it belongs to you as much as it does
to us.

This year, students planted seeds, tended farms, and got fresh food onto
lunch trays and into family kitchens across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens,
Manhattan, and Denver. They also stepped into leadership roles, testifying
before City Council and teaching their neighbors what food justice looks like
in practice.

And none of it happens without you. Every pound grown, every student on a
farm, every family served, started with someone who believed in this work.
This year, that was you.

Click the link below to take a look at what your support made possible this year.

https://teensforfoodjustice.my.canva.site/tffj-impact-report-fy26

09/14/2026

Back to school, back to the farms!

Walking into TFFJ's farm at Urban Assembly Union School () this year means flowers on the door, hearts in the hallway, and a sign that says it plain: the farm missed you. Alyssa Gardner-Vazquez, TFFJ's Brooklyn Bridge Senior Regional Coordinator, built the welcome display herself, flower by flower.

Down the hall, a math teacher added a heart of her own: "Add confidence, subtract doubt, multiply your effort."

Students grow food here. They also grow confidence and community, and this year's welcome made that clear before anyone even stepped inside.

Building a just food system for all starts with a door that says "come in."

09/10/2026

Happy First Day of School! 📚
Take a look at the first student seeding of the school year at the hydroponic farm inside the Far Rockaway Educational Campus.

09/08/2026

From tomatoes to hot peppers to okra! 🌶️

Experimental systems let students explore a wide range of crops in smaller, controlled environments—such as buckets and Kratky systems—beyond what they already grow in larger hydroponic farms. They can choose what to grow and learn about a specific plant's needs from seed to harvest. These test crops are outside TFFJ's product menu, and depending on how well they perform, they can be selected to join the crop-variety rotation across all TFFJ farms.

09/02/2026

Ready to guess again? What is this vegetable called? Let us know in the comments!

Address

33 West 60th Street
New York, NY
10023

Telephone

+18335242742

Website

http://www.teensforfoodjustice.org/donate

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