Food and Nutrition

Farmers Markets

The RB Farmers Markets has responded quickly to the many changes brought about by COVID-19. Our markets will continue to bring healthy, nutritious, fresh food to the community all while implementing measures that ensure your and our safety. Join RiseBoro every Saturday & Sunday from May through November to enjoy fresh produce, local products, and experiences that celebrate Bushwick’s multicultural heritage and to celebrate the bounty that our local farmers bring us.

We speak English and Spanish, accept cash and credit at all our markets, and encourage the use of SNAP, WIC and other nutrition benefits ready at our Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday markets.

Cash, credit, SNAP and WIC accepted ∙ FREE culinary & nutrition demonstrations

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Urban Agriculture

Bushwick Grows Community Farm

The Bushwick Grows Community Farm offers Bushwick residents the opportunity to learn, get involved, and be a part of leading the way for a greener Bushwick. Established in 2018, Bushwick Grows is an ecological learning center. We produce over 1000 lbs. and over 200 varieties of fruits, veggies, and flowers each year and we share this bounty with our community. The site demonstrates ecological, sustainable practices including: A compost toilet, grey water system, permaculture growing, we have 3 chickens who speed-up our 3-bin compost system, and we’ll soon be installing solar panels to power our space.

The Farm offers year-round educational programs both for RiseBoro’s youth center participants for students at the neighboring All City Leadership Academy.

In the summer, the Farm is abuzz with teenagers through the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program who build Farm infrastructure (In just 6 weeks in Summer 2019, they built an outdoor kitchen and a pond!), learn about growing food and farm ecosystems, and maintain our farm’s compost system. Are you a young person looking to get involved and get paid for it? Check out NYC’s summer youth page for application information!

Families, Adults, and Seniors are also welcome at the Farm. Every Saturday from April to October, Bushwick Grows invites everyone to gather at the farm for weekly workdays from 10am – 1pm, followed by Farming and Culinary workshops starting at 2pm.

Got food scraps? We’re a DSNY community compost collection site. Come drop them off and we’ll turn them into fertile soil for our plants to grow.

Saratoga Grows! Senior Garden Program 

In partnership with our Saratoga Senior Center at Saratoga Village Houses (located at 930 Halsey Street on the Bushwick/Bedford-Stuyvesant border) and with the support of L+M Development Partners, RB offers our seed-to-plate food and farming program, Saratoga Grows! The program takes place at the on-site greenhouse, four outdoor raised beds, and in the Center’s cafeteria. 

The primary purpose of Saratoga Grows! is to engage residents and community members from across Saratoga Village Houses in culturally-competent food cultivation and nutrition literacy. The program demonstrates best growing practices from seed to harvest with a seasoned instructor. Harvested herbs and vegetables are incorporated into healthy meal preparations. Participants connect with their food, learn new recipes, and discuss fresh food and health strategies.

Contact Us

Bushwick Grows Community Farm

Hours: Weekly workdays on Saturdays, 10:00 AM – 1:00 pm;

Farming and Culinary workshops 2:00 PM

Director: Camille Camayd, Farmer and Educator

Email: [email protected]

Saratoga Grows!

Director: Bianca Bockman

Email: [email protected]

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Food Pantry

RiseBoro’s’ food Pantry provides food for the community free of charge. Community members can stop by the Wellness Rising office located at 518 Bushwick Avenue during pantry hours and receive a bag of fresh produce that is meant to feed a family of four for a week. No ID is required. For pantry hours or questions please call (917) 810-3156.  Se habla Español.

Food Support Connections

RiseBoro has been a partner with The United Way of NYC since the inception of the program in 2003. The Food Support Connections team works with community residents to assist them enroll and maintain SNAP benefits, which offer subsidized food and nutrition for eligible families. The FSC team works hand-in-hand to ensure that all clients are properly screened and assessed for eligibility, and that their applications for the benefit are completed correctly and efficiently.

For eligibility on SNAP benefits, please follow New York State requirements on ny.gov/services/apply-snap

What We Do

• SNAP enrollment and recertification
• Application support and follow-up
• Referrals for job training, adult education, and healthcare enrollment

Home-delivered Meals for Seniors

RiseBoro provides home-delivered meals to homebound seniors in multiple Brooklyn communities, including: Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford Stuyvesant, Fort Green, Crown Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, and Red Hook. We prepare and deliver 1,500 hot nutritious meals per day from our Borinquen Plaza Senior Center.

Hot meals are prepared and delivered 6 days per week and a chilled meal is delivered on Saturday for Sunday. The program prepares meals that meet special requests including Asian, vegetarian, lactose and low sodium diets.

We partner with United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg and the Polish Slavic Center in Greenpoint to provide ethnically appropriate meals in Community District #1, and we subcontract with Shalom Senior Center in Crown Heights to provide Glatt Kosher Meals in their community. The home delivered weekend meals are provided under contract with Citymeals-on-Wheels.

Food Democracy

The Central Brooklyn Food Democracy Project advances a culture of healthy food, resilience and cooperative self-determination among long-term residents who are at risk of residential and commercial displacement in Central Brooklyn. In direct response to a pattern and practice of food redlining in Central Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Movement Center and RiseBoro have partnered to imagine a neighborhood-based food system powered by a new generation of consumer- and worker-owned cooperative food enterprises. 

Incubated by the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), the Central Brooklyn Food Coop (The Food Coop) is a game-changing initiative in one of the most rapidly gentrifying areas in NYC. Set to open Fall of 2022, It has been organizing since 2014 and is the nerve center and engine of the project. As a Black-led retail food cooperative, it will enable thousands of low- and moderate-income residents to nourish themselves with healthy and affordable food. As a consumer-owned coop, each member holds an equity stake in the coop and helps lower operational costs through an investment fee and three hours of monthly labor.

The Food Coop also serves as the anchor for the larger Central Brooklyn Food Democracy Project. Each of the worker owned-cooperatives are expected to do business with the CBFC and each other. 

RiseBoro will leverage the market base and opportunities generated by the Food Coop to form business relationships and establish at least six micro-enterprises along a food supply/demand value chain that will include food growing, sourcing, production, warehousing, packing, distribution, and catering, creating at least 35 new jobs. 

We launched our first Worker Coop Academy in October of 2020 and graduated 3 worker cooperatives in May of 2021. Keep an eye on our website for information about our next academy and how to apply.

If you or someone you know is interested in starting a food-based, worker-owned business, Pre-register for an info session using the link below: 

bit.ly/RBacadinfo

Contact  Ashleigh Eubanks at  [email protected] with questions or for more information about our Academy and worker co-op work.

A UNIFIED VISION OF COMMUNITY FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

Collectively, these project features will be points along a natively established, farm-to-plate food pipeline. The CBFC and the worker coops are democratically run by low- and moderate-income consumer- and worker-owners, respectively. Together, they will give rise to a wholesale/retail eco-system of local food growers, aggregators, transporters, packagers, sellers, and educators.

RiseBoro’s very first Worker Cooperative Academy launched with a kick-off weekend on October 24th – 26th, 2020! The Academy  took participants through an intensive incubation experience to prepare their businesses for launch and sustainability., They are now part of a newly formed network of democratically-run, predominantly Black businesses that will support each other and the Central Brooklyn community with good food services and products.

UPDATES FROM THE FOOD DEMOCRACY PROJECT

Our 2021-2022 Worker Coop Academy will get started in late September, 2021. Interested in starting a food-based coop? Pre-register for an info session here!

For more info, contact Ashleigh Eubanks: [email protected]

MEET RISEBORO’S WORKER COOP ACADEMY COHORT 1 GRADUATES 

BEAUTIFULLY FED FOOD

Beautifully Fed Food (BFF) is a womxn-led collective of Black and Brown people from African and Latin-American Diasporas. They are trained in culinary arts, nutrition, and food justice with a mission to encourage the celebration of our cultures, honor the wisdom of our bodies, and practice the traditions of their ancestors through food. 

Check them out at beautifullyfedfood.com and on Instagram at @beautiullyfedfood

QTIE HERB FARM

QTIE Herb Farm is a budding  Queer, Trans, Black and Brown cooperative farm in the North East that grows, shares, and teaches about medicinal plants and traditions. Their collective of healers, farmers, and facilitators believes healing and liberation are interconnected, ongoing processes that require cultivating reciprocal relationships with the earth. 

Check them out on Instagram at @qtie_herbfarm

SISTERS 3 TEA

Sisters 3 Tea is the first coop we’ve incubated that offers Consumer Packaged Goods. Sister 3 Tea is a family-owned beverage manufacturing company. They produce sparkling botanicals from Caribbean herbs and fruits. Drawing from the wisdom of their matriarch, their family is dedicated to elevating Caribbean culture and creating a world where health and pleasure are synonymous. 

Check them out at sisters3tea.com and Instagram @sisters3tea

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