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EPA Provides Grant for Organic Gardening and Composting Training in Brooklyn; Community Gardens in Bedford-Stuyvesant to Benefit from Program

Release Date: 09/17/2013
Contact Information: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $30,000 to Green Guerillas, a New York City community-based organization, to teach organic gardening skills to a team of Brooklyn young people. The grant was awarded under the EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, which supports and empowers communities working on solutions to local environmental and public health issues.

“EPA environmental justice grants provide much needed funds to tackle local pollution problems and improve the quality of life in low income communities," said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. "The grant to Green Guerillas will educate young people in Brooklyn on ways they can utilize urban land, create healthier neighborhoods and get people working together to solve problems.”

Through its Youth Tillers program, Green Guerillas will use this EPA environmental justice grant to recruit and train a team of Brooklyn young people to work on composting, rainwater collection and the reduction of pesticide use through organic gardening. Along with the Green Guerillas staff, Youth Tillers will work with 15 Bedford-Stuyvesant community gardens to expand current composting systems or install new systems to reduce solid plant waste and food scraps. Participants will also improve upon or install rainwater systems to help harvest hundreds of gallons of water to reduce runoff and sewer overflows. In turn, youth participants will educate area residents using hands-on demonstration techniques, educational materials and by conducting healthy gardening and cooking classes.

Since 1994, the EPA’s environmental justice small grants program has supported projects to address environmental justice issues in more than 1,300 communities. The grants represent EPA’s continued commitment to expand the conversation on environmentalism and advance environmental justice in communities across the nation.

2013 EJ Small Grant recipients and project descriptions: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/grants/ej-smgrants-recipients-2013.pdf.

More information about EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants program: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html.

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