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