Great Throughts Treasury

"Green Bronx Machine was born out of the belief that we can all succeed. If you teach those who are traditionally apart from success and make them a part of success, together we can all prosper. We?re sitting on the biggest opportunity for us in the South Bronx?growing, resourcing and recycling our way into a whole new economy."

"Black field, brown field, toxic waste field, battlefield ? we're proving in the Bronx that you can grow anywhere."

"The greening of America starts first with the pocket, then with the heart and then with the mind."

"Kids should not have to leave their community to live, learn and earn in a better one."

"At the end of the day, we are moving people who are ?apart from? to being ?a part of? and reclaiming neighborhoods and lives in ways that we?ve never imagined."

"There are those people who say you have to accept the things you cannot change. I am determined to change the things that I can no longer accept; that is, sick kids, poor diets and bad environments. These things are a lot easier to fix than people realize. It all starts with seeds and it all starts with classrooms."

"We are growing ourselves into a whole new economy in the bullet field, battlefield and plastic-waste field of the South Bronx."

"At one point I had a group of seventeen kids, probably the most challenged kids in this school. A lot of them came to me via the criminal justice system. One thing to know about kids ages 16 to 21 who come out of the criminal justice system is that they usually go back in. Most of them did not want to be in school?nothing to do with me, but having everything to do with just not succeeding at school and a lot of other life challenges. Someone approached me about a potential project outside of school involving some community beautification and restoration that also involved skills like carpentry, plumbing and a lot of demolition work. These kids were very excited to get out of school. I had commandeered this project, but I had a lot of support from colleagues who really didn?t know how to engage these youngsters; they were thrilled that I was willing to own these kids and literally make them my family and take them off everybody?s hands. We got out of school and, lo and behold, the kids really succeeded. They took to this and it became their green graffiti, if you will."

"They?re eating things that they?ve never eaten before. They?re getting critical nutrition where they need it most: in school. It affects their academic health, their social health and their physical health. My kids are getting exercise. But then you notice other things: you see a decrease in graffiti, in littering, in vandalism. I see kids aspiring to things and places that they?ve never aspired to before. As a teacher, that?s just wonderful."

"We have a wonderful ?food for others? area, which is an outdoor community garden, and 100 percent of the food grown goes to local soup kitchens. Ironically and somewhat sadly, many of my kids have either family members or someone they know who gets up to two meals a day at those shelters."

"When I realized the cultural relevance of the food and the nutritional value of the food, I myself lost over 100 pounds by eating the things we grew. It became critical for me to integrate nutrition into school where it was needed most: where they are learning. And 30,000 pounds of vegetables later, here we are."

"We have local farmers? markets where the kids are involved in entrepreneurial skills. And we have community days where we get parents and grandparents to come in and purchase food for pennies on the dollar that they can?t get locally in their own communities. And guess what? When they show up, we sign them up to vote; we have the local politicians come out. We surround them with a team of dedicated professionals and a continuum of services that are going to enrich their lives."