Seeds in the Middle
Online Auction Contact Us Donate
Inspiring Social Change Through Sustainable Health facebook logo twitter logo blogger logo pinterest logo Google+
 
Home About Us Programs Issues Partners Our Results Media Get Involved
 
 

Seeds in the Middle is a registered 501c3 charity


 

In the News

See our Newsletters!

 

Tour De Brooklyn, June 1st

 

5K for MLK Color Run/Walk, Jan 13

 

MLK Day of Service, Jan 7

 


Pledge on our riders for the tour de Brooklyn!
SEE FORMER PRINCIPAL SOLOMON LONG ON TV!

 

We're putting up four farmers markets in June! Pledge on our riders here!

See Mr. Long challenge you to bet how how long Mr. Long can go!



Help us raise funds for kids and more farmers markets!

PLAY SOCCER?

CROWN HEIGHTS CUP ON SUNDAY, JUNE 8




Crown Heights Youth Soccer
Saturdays/Sundays

Register/get information here!



Here's what biking and playing ball can do! Create FOUR farmers markets in underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods from Prospect Park at Empire Blvd. to Parkside Plaza in Prospect-Lefferts to Crown Heights to Bed-Stuy, maybe more. See details on our flyer here. Our markets feature not fresh produce and activities to build community. EBT/SNAP, WIC, FMNP, Health Bucks accepted.

EMAIL for more info at soccer@seedsinthemiddle.org

 

Hip2B Healthy Students Achieve Higher

 

boy eating apple

Guess what? Our Hip2B Healthy Market Ambassadors in 2012 outscored students across their district and NYC in standardized tests! Do you think running a market, accounting, analyzing food labels to know what to sell, and writing letters and reading about food justice had anything to do with that? Or a great teacher?

 

Compare!

 

Ms.Fearon's Hip2B Healthy 4th graders scored at or above grade level:

 

Subject Hip2B Dist. 17 NYC
Math:"3,4" 85% 43.5% 65.7%
Math:"4" 27% 16.1% 29.1%
ELA:"3,4" 69% 49.3% 52.4%
Science:"3,4" 96.2% 77% N/A

 

Wait! Did you see that 27% scored "4" in math! That is 27% scoring above grade level! Congrats to their teacher. Ms. Sara Ann Fearon. Yes, it's Hip2B Healthy. Register at PS221 and your child too can be a top NYC student.

 

Hungry? Get your fruit on!

Come to the Hip2B Healthy Market

Weekly at Crown Heights Farmers Markets


Big apple crunch picture

Come try out fresh lemonade and orange juice at every Crown Heights Farmers Market this summer - Thursdays and Fridays

1 - 7 pm. All-natural ice cones, anyone? Who says you can't get a nutritious snack for as little as 50 cents? Students/parents - forget the junk food at the corner stores! Support youth promoting fresh food and your health in your neighborhood. Thursday market is at Hamilton Metz Park and Friday's is at Brower Park. Thank you, donors!

 

Check out our photos

 

We're on Heritage Radio Network!

heritage radio logo

 

Hear our kids tell you all about our how to run a business where youth empower their peers to eat well.

We're on the radio, not once, but twice.

Here is the on-site story.

Here we are in the studio, featuring Tassia and Maria. Thank you, Heritage Radio Network.

 

Summer Youth Soccer

Adult Pick-up, Anyone?


kids playing soccerSign up now for youth soccer. We have clinics all summer. Fall registration opens soon. The Crown Heights Soccer Eagles are grooming a league. Contact us now at soccer@seedsinthemiddle.org

 

Adults? Want pick-up? A chance to win gift certificates for soccer restaurants and games?

 

Take our survey here.

Register youth online here.

Download flyer.

Download registration form.

 

 

Fall RegistrationSoon

 

 

Students Help Students Build Gardens!

 

girl with lettuce plant

Hip2B Healthy Schools don't waste any schooldays. That's why PS 221 second graders helped their friends at PS 161 build a garden the very last days of school in June. Thank you to New Design High School and Home Depot for their generous donations!

 

See photos here

 

Solid Rock Supports Hip2B Healthy Students!

chef Elle

In June, a mission of youth and their parents from Florida, called Solid Rock, stormed into Crown Heights and helped Hip2B Healthy students build gardens, cook nutritiously with Chef Elle Siimone, make artful signage and play ball - all to get healthy.

 

See photos of our chef night here

 

Hip2B Healthy Farmstand Fundraiser Rocked!

 

little girl

Did you know PS 221 offers Metropolitan Opera Guild Urban Voices chorus, keyboard for all students k-2 and ballroom dancing for 5th graders? On March 22, our Hip2B Healthy ambassadors raised $ with our first farmstand fundraiser - selling grapes, fresh orange juice, apple cider, New York apples, grape tomatoes, Ronnybrook yogurt drinks, strawberries and plants grown by our very own PS 221 urban farmers! Thank you, Jetro Cash and Carry, Ronnybrook, Tree-licious Orchards, Wilklow Orchards, Beth's Farm Kitchen.

 

Check out our photos here

 

Congrats!

Hip2B Healthy Ambassador Award Winners

 

hip2b healthy awards

 

See photos here

 

Gardening and Math? Using a Green Room!

 

smile plant

Our third graders were delighted to learn how to measure and boost their math skills by gardening in the Green Room! They used measuring to solve all types of planting problem, like where to plant seeds in the indoor grow tables.

Thanks to the Whole Kids Foundation, Anna Elllis, teachers and students are growing in tables beautifully crafted by Home Depot and building worm composting bins.

 

See the story at our blogspot

 

See photos here

 

 

RAFFLE! Everybody wins! Win an iPod or earn prizes by selling tickets, including an iPod.

Download flyer here!


 

Children’s Garden at Hamilton Metz Park

 

roy garden group


Thank you, Kaboom, and Farmer Roy Hildebrant’s family and friends - our Crown Heights Farmers Market co-founders - for planting the first children’s garden at Hamilton Metz Park. We planted trees and bulbs. We look forward to seeing them come up this spring, to bring back our beautiful memories of Farmer Roy, who passed last August.

 

Students cook at the Yale Club


Yale club cookingcooking at yale club

 

See our slideshow of Chef Kehrli with his newest sous chefs.

 

 

brooklyn tastes brooklyn tastes

 

Many thanks to all our Tastes of Brooklyn and Eat Real NYC chefs and donors and volunteers and tasters!


Special gratitude to the Aetna Foundation, Bronx Health Reach, Citizens Committee of New York City, Home Depot, Whole Foods Market and all our volunteers and supporters who keep Seeds in the Middle growing! 

ADVISORY BOARD
Seeds in the Middle thanks these distinguished New Yorkers for joining our advisory board! 
black line
David Appel, MD, director of Montefiore Medical Center's School Health Program, named by New York Magazine as one of New York's "influentials." 

Jimmy Bradley, chef/owner of top-rated Manhattan restaurants, The Red Cat and The Harrison 

Fern Gale Estrow, a Registered Dietitian and founder of The FGE Food and Nutrition Team, whose focus is improving health and quality of life through integration of programs affiliated with food, nutrition education, clinical support, media literacy, and/or policy development.

Yale Club Chef Charles Kehrli

Mary Leou, Ph.D, Director of the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at NYU, and Director of the Environmental Conservation Education Program in the Department of Teaching and Learning. (Dr. Leou has over 20 years of experience in urban environmental education. She has received numerous grants to develop school programs, teacher education initiatives, and environmental curricula. She is the former Chair of the Environmental Education Advisory Council and serves on numerous boards in the metropolitan area including Nature Network, Metro Forest Council and a member of the NYS Outdoor Education Association's Environmental Literacy Committee.) 

Sue Torres, chef/owner of top-rated Manhattan restaurant, Suenos

Thanks to all our generous donors! Aetna Foundation, Citizens Committee of NYC, Home Depot, Whole Foods Market, Modell's, Institute for Integrative Nutrition, all our volunteer chefs and more…


 
corner image black line corner image
black line


Seeds in the Middle, named by fourth graders, inspires parents, educators, students and their community to access all opportunities beginning with improving their health, enhancing arts education and greening their environment. We are joyful, respectful, educational and engaging. We nurture the whole child.

Our innovative strategy to fight obesity initiates at schools. We weave proven programs into a comprehensive package to turn around ills driving down opportunity and advancement. We empower and educate all to get healthy and scale disparities. Our pilot Hip2B Healthy elementary school is PS 221 in Crown Heights, a neighborhood with one of New York city’s highest obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates. It is a model for replication.


We run two community farmers markets with plans to expand; and we founded Soccer for Harmony tournaments. We are proud to boast that our focus 4th grade class test scores in 2012 surpassed the citywide average!


At Seeds in the Middle, we partner with faculty. We teach how to grow, market, access and prepare nutritious food, how to exercise and engage in the arts, all the elements needed to promote life-changing lifelong health. Our partners come from all walks of life: chefs, athletes, educators, artists, builders and more. We cross cultures. We transform gray into green, destitution into inspiration.

black line



Join Martin Luther King Day

 Million YOuth March For Freedom

Monday, Jan. 19 

 VOLUNTEER, PLAY MUSIC, ART, HIP2B HEALTHY FARMSTAND, FRESH SNACKS

JOIN SO EVERY CHILD CAN ACHIEVE THE DREAM - MONDAY, JAN. 19 - MS 61, BK

 CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS 

  Pledge on our marchers by donating here! 
Mr. Long is leading. Challenge Mr. Long - How long can Mr. Long go?



Have fun, do good, help us raise funds for youth programs!



More information and register here!

Can you help us get the word out? Print and paste up this flyer

Did you see us in the Daily News? 

Nutritionally, a Tale of Two Cities 

Send us your comments at info@seedsinthemiddle.org 

black line

Our Youth are Against Violence and For Equal Opportunity for All 

That's why they're taking action & marching! 

Monday, Jan. 19 - Noon - MS 61, Brooklyn - Find MS 61 here

walkouttheknockout

See the video they made for last year's MLK Day March walk/run

 

Food justice a civil right? Join the MLK Day Million Youth March for Freedom 

 Learn more about Seeds in the Middle from Charity Sub!



Testimonials

thought bubbleSolomon Long, Former Public School Principal, in spring 2009 wrote
I have been a principal in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, for nineteen years. I was born and raised in Crown Heights. I was quite concerned when NY1 showed the statistics on where the highest obesity was in the city. Read more...

bubbleSara Ann Fearon, Fourth Grade Teacher, in July 2011,  teacher Sara-Ann Fearon wrote a moving letter about the deterioration in diet over two decades in Crown Heights and the “staggering” differences in services between their neighborhood and more affluent areas. She movingly describes the impact of Seeds in the Middle. 
“I am reminded of the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a  man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This project has created what we hope to be mental and physical adjustments that will continue throughout the lives of these children. It is also my desire to see the continuation of this program in P.S. 221 with its students becoming the ambassadors of healthy eating within their families and their communities."  See entire letter here.

 

bubbleStudents say:
"I love working at Seeds in the Middle because I get to plant and be a part of a group of people who are trying to change the world. I learned that Seeds in the Middle is not just about planting and being healthy, it is to fight bad things that crawl into people such as cancer," said one fourth grader. "I want more people to help us out because it does not hurt for a couple of more hands to come in. "Read more here

 

bubble See what we reported to the Aetna Foundation, our first grantor!
“Seeds in the Middle, named by fourth graders, proves that challenged communities at the
heart of the obesity epidemic can be empowered to change their unhealthy environment, and
boost academic achievement, if provided adequate support and resources. This multi-faceted,
grassroots strategy transformed a school in low-income central Brooklyn, where over 95% of
students receive free or reduced lunch, from being ignorant of links between food and fitness to
good health to becoming active advocates for positive change. Read entire report here!





pet paradeGeorgia Goldendoodle says get a pup a bone!
Georgia thanks Carlo, her fav' Italian guy (may he rest in peace), for those absolutely, scrumptious to die for all-natural beef bones. They’re Georgia and Carlo’s Canine Cuisine. And you can get them from us for your favorite canine guy or gal! “I just go crazy over them,” says Georgia. “Friend me on Facebook: Georgia Goldendoodle.”



black line

Grantors

Aetna Foundation Bronx Health

 
   
 
Sign Up for Our Newsletter! Enter your e-mail address:
 
 


Seeds in the Middle, PO Box 310752, Brooklyn, NY 11231  |  Phone: 917-697-3745  |  E-mail: info@seedsinthemiddle.org

Designed by the The Mardiney Group, Inc.
 
corner image   corner image