Buffalo Grown Mobile Market | Buffalo Grown Farm to School l Aquaponics Information

MAP's Mobile Market Is here!

Imagine having access to an abundance of healthy food produced by people you trust and from land you know and love. The Mobile Market brings fresh fruits and vegetables, bulk food like rice, beans, and prepared goodies, as well as fun food facts and nutrition information. For more information about the Mobile Market, click here!

WHY BUY LOCAL FOOD?

Buying locally grown food supports local farmers and local people and keeps money in your community.
Buying locally grown food helps support the earth by using less gas and causing less pollution. We don't need 18 wheelers, we're local!
Buying local and organic food is good for people. It tastes fresher because it is fresher.

Please support your local economy, mother earth and a healthier population.

BUY LOCAL and ORGANIC FOOD!

::Volunteer for Growing Green!

Interested in helping out? Contact Jesse Meeder, Growing Green Farm Manager at 716-882-5327 ext 3.

::Growing Green Anthem

We are trying to be some better teens with new routines, u know what I mean, it's all about Growing Green!

We got tomatoes over here and fruit everywhere if the community want to grab some it's all to share so don't be scared...

And it ain't no need to panic 'cuz everything we grow is all organic from the beans to the carrots to the rest of the crops, man we grew all that on seven adjacent lots, now it might seem like a lot but it's not a little from the flowers in the front to the herbs in the middle.

Now if u trying to be different we respect your style that's why we still trying to get more youth involved and it ain't really nothin's that you should fear 'cause you can make a great difference in just one year

And now we give our respect to Diane and Jason 'cause they deleted all the problems that we was facin' We still got more gardens, some of the best, from Rhode Island and 18th to Hampshire and West,

Got 26 raised beds so ain't no need to stress, Now I'm tellin' you our food is off the hook so don't be scared to stop by and take a look!

By Romero Gossom

Growing Green Program

Growing Green is an urban, organic agricultural training program that develops life-skills and provides meaningful work to low-income, at-risk youth in Buffalo. Started in 2003, the program began working with local youth on our urban farm, teaching them to grow food organically and about how to build community through food. Growing Green developed a peer education initiative, where youth run after school workshops about sustainable urban agriculture, nutrition and and healthy cooking. It also has many community outreach efforts, including community a "Be Vocal Eat Local Week," "Eat-Up," an annual youth conference on food issues, and a local food access guide to help people find healthy food. In 2006 we began our youth enterprise, Growing Green Works, selling organic local made food products to help support our employment and training of youth all year around.

In Growing Green youth gain knowledge about their own food, nutrition, and food systems issues. We use hands-on activities in MAP'S award-winning gardens, in the MAP shared use commercial kitchen, on the farm, and at local schools to empower youth to live healthier and be agents of positive social change in their communities.

Through their work learning and teaching others, youth acquire marketable job and life skills, an increased knowledge of good nutrition and improved nutritional practices, and business ownership experience. Specifically, the Growing Green Program offers youth involvement in:

Growing vegetables & herbs organically in raised-bed gardens
Soil remediation (planting specific plants which remove soil toxins)
Composting experiments such as vermi- cultur (worm composting)
Leadership Training
Development of garden-based businesses
Aquaponics (fish and plants growing in a closed ecological system)

During the growing season, youth focus on hands-on activities in the garden and marketing and selling their produce locally. By transforming vacant lots into community gardens, youth actively participate in the building, planting, maintaining and harvesting of eight vacant lots with thirty raised beds using organic and sustainable farming methods.

As the growing season ends, the focus of the program shifts to business education, business and garden planning activities, program evaluation, and planning & implementing community projects.

In the fall of 2003, MAP contracted with the University of Buffalo's Department of Urban and Regional Planning to complete a Community Food Security Assessment and Plan for Buffalo's West Side. This plan, which has won local, state, and national awards, has provided a base for moving Growing Green towards it's goal of ensuring access to quality, affordable food. In Growing Green's second year (September 2004), the USDA awarded MAP a $265,000 grant to expand and sustain the program over three years. Growing Green continues to serve as a local model for sustainable community development.

Growing Green Works

What is Growing Green Works? Growing Green Works is a locally owned and operated venture that is managed and run by urban youth on the west side of Buffalo as part of the Growing Green Program. The initiative began in 2005 as an economic education program for youth, giving them hands-on business and leadership training by starting their own social enterprise.

What the youth are doing now? We've been selling our Amazing Chili Starter and Super Duper Salsa at local stores and shops including Wegmans, Ten Thousand Villages, the Lexington Cooperative Market, Château Buffalo, Mom & Pops Market and many other local shops. We're also doing research and development for other future products.

Vision for Expansion: We want to expand our ability to employ youth and build up our community in a healthy way. We are always working to get our products in more local Buffalo stores but if you are interested and can't find our products near you, call us and make an order. (716) 882-5327 ext. 4.

Thanks to our Generous Sponsors

The Western New York Foundation, Citizens Bank, The Peter Cornell Trust Foundation, USDA, Porter Farms

"Producing and processing our products in a healthy way, from the garden to the jar, we support healthy food, local youth development and mother earth."