A cabbage pulled from the soil. A raspberry eaten steps from where it grew. Potatoes dug from the ground, smashed, and crisped in a wood-fired oven.
For young people growing up in cities, experiences like these can transform something so familiar—food—by connecting what’s on the plate to the soil, seasons, and people that produced it.
This summer, young people from urban communities across the region have been making those connections at The Sylvia Center’s Learning Garden at Katchkie Farm.
Over the last month, students from Hostos Community College’s Bronx Civics Scholars Institute, NewYork-Presbyterian, the University at Albany’s Liberty Partnerships Rising Stars Program, and Kingston’s YMCA Farm Project have experienced food education from beginning to end: harvesting straight from the soil, tasting where it grows, cooking, and sharing a meal together.
The Garden Classroom
Across those visits, the garden becomes part classroom, part kitchen. Cabbage harvested just feet away becomes charred cabbage with miso butter in the wood-fired oven; raspberries become dessert with freshly whipped cream. A seasonal slaw takes shape around what’s ready to harvest, using our Chef Brain approach: adaptable recipes that encourage students to season to taste, experiment with flavor and texture, make decisions, and build confidence in their own choices.
Research in New York City has long found significant neighborhood disparities in fruit and vegetable consumption, shaped in part by socioeconomic conditions and local food environments. For young people already telling us affordable produce is difficult to find where they live, exposure to fresh food isn’t abstract.
And we’re hearing what a difference these farm experiences make to our students. Vegetables they hadn’t expected to enjoy were flavorful and satisfying. Harvesting and cooking these ingredients prompted conversations about the lack of quality food options in their own neighborhoods—and questions about the systemic barriers contributing to food inequity.
The farm itself has made an impression, too. Students have talked about feeling more connected to nature, and noticing the sights, sounds, smells, and slower pace at Katchkie. Some came away wanting to make healthier choices in their own lives; others wanted to learn more about food justice and advocate for better access to nutritious food in their communities.
As Hostos College Now Director Travaras Geter reflected, “This was more than a farm visit. It’s a transformative opportunity for students to connect learning with real-world issues.”
Lasting Impact
Creating these opportunities also means meeting young people where they are. Through partnerships with organizations like New York Restoration Project, we bring hands-on learning into growing spaces across New York City. This summer, Sylvia Center teens built mushroom beds, harvested fresh ingredients, and cooked together. Whether in an urban garden or on a Hudson Valley farm, the setting becomes part of the lesson—connecting food, health, environment, and community.
Learning Garden intern Nate understands the power of this kind of exposure personally. Growing up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, his food landscape was dominated by corner stores, takeout, and fast food. “No one ever told us food could be anything else,” he wrote in an article last year. “We didn’t know what we didn’t know.”
Today, Nate is studying to become a registered dietitian and spends every week in the Learning Garden. Speaking at our 19th Annual Farm to Table fundraiser earlier this month, he distilled the idea into three words: “Exposure is everything.”
Meaningful food education isn’t simply about telling young people what to eat. It gives them opportunities to grow food, taste it, cook it, understand the systems surrounding it, and imagine something different. Closing the distance between young people and their food starts with access, knowledge, and the opportunity to experience what’s possible.
