A teacher growing green in the South Bronx Stephen Ritz

good afternoon I am NOT a farmer I’m not

I’m a parent I’m a resident and I’m a

teacher and this is my world along the

way I’ve started noticing I’m on my

third generation of kids that they’re

getting bigger they’re getting sicker in

addition to these complexities I just

learned that 70% of the kids that I see

who are labeled learning disabled would

not have been had they had proper

prenatal nutrition on the realities of

my community is simple they look like

this kids did not have to grow up and

look at things like this and his jobs

continue to leave my community and

energy continues to come in be exported

in it’s no wonder that really some

people refer to the South Bronx as a

desert but I’m the oldest sixth grader

you’ll ever meet so I get up every day

with this tremendous amount of food

Yasim that I’m hoping to share with you

all today and with that note I come with

you with this belief that kids should

not have to leave their community to

live learn and earn a better one so I’m

here to tell you a story about me and

this wall that I met outside which I’m

now bringing inside and it starts with

three people a crazy teacher that’s me

on the Left I dress up pretty thank you

my wife I love getting a good suit my

passionate borough president a guy named

George Irwin from Green leading

technologies who helped me with my class

and helped me get involved with this

patented technology but it all starts

with seeds and classrooms in my place

which looks like this and I’m here today

hoping that my reach will exceed my

grasp and that’s really what this is all

about and it starts with incredible kids

like this we come early and stay late

all of my kids are either IEP or ëall

learners the most to come with a lot of

handicaps most are homeless and many are

in foster care

almost all my kids live below poverty

but with those seeds from day one we are

growing in my classroom and this is what

it looks like in my classroom and you

see how it tented these kids are - these

seeds and then you notice that those

seeds become farms across the Bronx that

look like this but again

I am NOT a farmer I’m a teacher and I

don’t like weeding and I don’t like

black back-breaking labor so I wanted to

figure out how to get this kind of

success into something small like this

and bring it into my classroom so that

handicapped kids could do it kids you

didn’t want to be outside to do it and

everyone could have access so I Paul

George Rowan and what do you know he

came to my class and we built an indoor

edible wall and let me do it when we

partnered with authentic learning

experience project-based learning and lo

and behold we gave birth to the first

edible wall in New York City so if

you’re hungry get up and eat you can do

it right now Mike could you play cow all

the time okay what we were just getting

started the kids love the technology so

we called up Jordan we said we got to

learn more

now Mayor Bloomberg thank you very much

we no longer need work permits which

comes with licensed and bonded

contractors we’re available for you we

decided to go to Boston and my kids from

the poorest congressional district in

America became the first to install of

green wall designed by computer with

real live learning skills 21 stories up

to you’re going to visit so on top of

the John Hancock building but closer to

home we started restoring these walls in

schools it looked like this was lighting

like that real LED stuff 21st century

technology and what do you know we make

21st century money and that was

groundbreaking this is my harvest people

and what do you do with this food you

cook it none of my heirloom students

making heirloom sauce with plastic forks

and we get it into the cafeteria and we

grow stuff and we feed our teachers and

that is the youngest nationally

certified workforce in America with our

Barmes borough president and what we do

then well I met nice people like you and

they invited us to the Hamptons so I

call this from South Bronx to

Southampton

and we started putting in rooms that

look like this and when Katie’s from

destitute neighborhoods you can start

building landscape like this Wow people

noticed and so we got invited back this

past summer we actually moved into the

Hamptons paying $35 a week for a house

and we learned how to surf and when you

can do stuff like this these are my kids

putting in this technology when you can

build a roof that looks like that on a

house that looks like that

the sedum that looks like this this is

the new beaver feeding so you may wonder

what does a wall like this really do for

kids besides changing landscapes and

mindsets okay I’m going to tell you what

it does it gets me to meet incredible

contractors like this Jim Ellenberger

from Ellenberger services and this is

where it becomes true triple bottom-line

because Jim realized that these kids my

future farmers really had the skills he

needed to build affordable housing for

New Yorkers right in your own

neighborhood and this is what my kids

are doing making a living wave now if

you’re like me you live in a building

there are seven guys out of work looking

to manage a million dollars I don’t have

but if you need a toilet fixed or you

know some shelving I gotta wait six

months for an appointment with someone

who drives a much nicer car than me

that’s the beauty of this economy but my

kids are now licensed and bonded in

training that’s my first student to open

up the first in his family to have a

bank account this immigrant student the

first one in his family to use an ATM

and this is the true triple bottom line

this one you can take neighborhoods that

were abandoned and destitute and turn

them into something like this with

interiors like this wow people notice

and notice they did some CNN called I’m

gonna delighted to have them come to our

farmers market and then when Rockefeller

Center said NBC could you put in some

minimal wall who were delighted but this

I show you when kids from the poorest

congressional district in America can

build a 30 foot by 15-foot wall design

it plant it and install it in the heart

of New York City that’s a true siege

they played a moment really scholastic

if you ask me

but this is not a getting image that’s a

picture I took of my Bronx borough

president addressing my kids in his

house not the jailhouse making them feel

a part of that’s our state senator

Gustavo Rivera and Bob Peter coming to

my classroom to make my kids feel

important and when the Bronx borough

president shows up in the state center

come to our class

believe you me the Bronx can change

attitudes now we are poised ready will

he get able to exploit our talent

diversity in ways we never even imagined

and when the local center to get some

scale publicly says he’s gotta lose

weight so do i and I tell you what I’m

doing it and so are the kids okay and

then celebrity starving produce P can’t

believe what we grow Lorna sass came and

donated books okay and we’re feeding

seniors and when we realized that we

were growing for food justice to the

South Bronx so to the international

community and my kids from the South

Bronx were repping the first

international green roof conference but

that’s just super great except what

about locally well we met this woman

Avis Richards with the ground up

campaign unbelievable through her my

kids the most disenfranchised and

marginalized but able to roll out

hundred gardens to New York City public

schools that’s triple bottom line okay

a year ago today I was invited to the

New York Academy of Medicine I thought

this concept of design is strong and

healthy New York made sense especially

when the resources were free so thank

you all and I love them they introduced

me to the New York City’s tkachuk

Alliance for health again free resources

don’t waste them and what do you know

six months later my school and my

occasion was awarded the first ever high

school award of excellence for creating

a healthy school environment the

greenest class in New York City but more

important is my kids learned yet they

learn to give and we took the money that

we made from our farmers markets started

buying gifts for the homeless and for

needy around the world so we started

giving back and that’s when I realized

that the greening of America starts

first with the pockets then with the

heart and then with the mind so we were

on to something

and we still on to something and thank

time Trinity Wall Street notice because

they gave us the birth of green Bronx

machine with 3,000 strong right now and

what does it really do it teaches kids

to revision their commute

they grow up in places like this they

can imagine it like this and my kids

trained and certified mine you get the

tax abatement I do Mayor Bloomberg to

take communities that look like this and

convert them into things that look like

that and that to meet people is another

true sea state wait a moment

now how does it start it starts with

schools no more little Nick’s and little

Nets group by broccoli group buy your

favorite vegetables something you can

aspire to okay and these are my Future

Farmers of America growing up in

Brooklyn 141st feet the most migrant

community in America and tenacious

little ones learn how to garden like

this it’s no wonder we get fruit like

that and I love it and so today and what

build them teepees when the

neighborhoods that were burning down and

that to true si se puede moment and

again Brook Park feeds hundreds of

people without a food stamp or a

fingerprint the map or is congressional

district in America the most migrants re

community America we can do this pencil

art isn’t cranking out food an epic

proportion booting kids into an economy

they never imagined now somewhere over

the rainbow my friends is the South

Bronx of America and we’re doing it how

does it start we’ll look at Jose’s

attention to detail thank God Omar knows

that carrots come from the ground and

not on lighting a supermarket it through

a bulletproof window or through a piece

of styrofoam and when Henry knows that

green is good so to lie and when you

expand their palates to expand their

vocabulary and most importantly when you

put big kids together with little kids

you get the big fat white guy out of the

middle school and you create this kind

of accountability amongst peers which is

incredible God I’m gonna run out of time

so I’ve got to keep it moving but this

is my weekly paycheck for kids that’s on

Green graffiti this is what we’re doing

and we’ll hold the glory and bounty that

is Bronx County nothing throws more than

see kids pollinating plants instead of

each other

I gotta Titans effective

but those kids are the kids who are now

putting on pumpkin patches on top of

trains we’re also designing koi ponds

for the rich and affluent we’re also

becoming trove into the court creating

farms in the middle of Fordham Road for

awareness and window bottles out of

garbage

the unexpected kid to be a farmer they

expect read about it write about a blog

about it offer outstanding customer

service

I expect me engage man are they so

that’s my incredible classroom that’s

the food where does it go zero miles to

plate right down into the cafeteria or

more importantly to local shelters where

most of that keeps getting one to two

meals a day and we’re stepping it up no

Air Jordans were ever ruined on my farm

and it is day of million dollar gardens

and incredible installations let me tell

you something people this is a beautiful

moment

you know black field brown field

toxic-waste field battlefield we’re

proving in the Bronx that you can grow

anywhere on cement and you know we take

orders from flowers but I’m putting the

big sale of shitty we take orders now

booking for the spring okay and these

are all grown from seeds we’re learning

everything and again when you can take

kids from backgrounds as diverse as this

to do something as special as this we’re

really creating a moment now you may ask

about these kids

forty percent attendance to 93 percent

attendance all start over age and under

credit they are now my first cohort is

all in college earning living wage the

rest are scheduled to graduate this view

happy kids happy families happy

colleagues amazed people the glory and

bounty that is Bronx County let’s talk

about woods where is my men I draw seven

kinds of meat in my past but he does

anybody I’ll be a Telepan later but

understand this is my intellectual

viagra ladies and gentlemen got to move

quick but understand this the borough

that gave us baggy pants and funky fresh

beaches be coming home to the organic

ones ok my green breath 25,000 pounds of

vegetables I’m growing organic citizens

engage kids so help us go from this to

this self-sustaining entities 18 months

return on investment plus we’re paying

people living wage and help benefits

while feeding people for pennies on the

dollar Martin Luther King said that you

know people need to be uplifted with

dignity so here in New York I urge you

my fellow Americans to help us make

America great again it’s simple share

your passion it’s real easy go see these

two videos please one got us invited to

the White House one’s a recent

incarnation and most importantly get the

biggest bully out of schools this has

got to go Tomorrow People you can all do

that keep kids out of stores that look

like this make them a healthy plate

especially your pick it off the wall in

your own classrooms let’s see also model

good behavior get them to a green card

big kids love strawberries and bananas

teach them entrepreneurialship thank God

for grow NYC let them cook great lunch

today

let them be 200 things but most

importantly just love them nothing works

like unconditional love so my good

friend Kermit said it’s not easy being

green it’s not I come from a place where

kids could buy 35 flavors of grunt wrap

it any day at the moment we’re ice cream

freezers are filled with slushy malt

liquor ok my dear friend Jarrah Carter

once told me we have everything to gain

and nothing to lose so here and at that

time where we’ve gone from the audacity

to hope to hope for some audacity I urge

you to do something I urge you to do

something right now we’re all tadpoles

but I urge you to become a big frog and

take that big green leaf I don’t care

for you’re on the left on the right up

the middle wherever join me use a lot of

energy help me use it

okay we can do something here and along

the way please take time to smell the

flowers especially if you and your

students groom I’m Steve rich this is

green brown sweetie I got to say thank

you to my wife and family for my kids

thank you for coming every day and for

my colleagues believing and supporting

me we are growing our way into the new

economy thank you god bless you enjoy

the day i’m steve rich