New York - Food Network, Share Our Strength_ and The Children’s Aid Society today announced the opening of the first Good Food Garden in New York City at the Dunlevy Milbank Center in Harlem. Good Food Gardens is a charitable program created by Food Network, Share Our Strength (the nation’s leading childhood hunger relief organization), and Teich Garden Systems to provide educational, sustainable gardens to schools and community centers that educate families on the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables and inspire healthy eating habits for life.
The Good Food Garden will be a multigenerational learning space, with toddlers, teens and seniors from the community working side by side to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers. The produce from the garden-peas, beets, heirloom lettuces, tomatoes, and much more-will be used in Children’s Aid Society’s Go! Chefs program, which makes healthy cooking and eating fun and accessible for children.
The Children’s Aid Society worked with Food Network and Share Our Strength to select the Dunlevy Milbank Center location, which serves the Harlem community. The Children’s Aid Society’s mission is to uplift poor children and families, and ensure their intellectual, physical and emotional well being. This mission dovetails with that of Share Our Strength_, a national organization working to ensure no child in America grows up hungry. More than 12 million U.S. children are at risk of hunger because they lack reliable access to nutritious food. Good Food Gardens complement Share Our Strength’s national plan to end childhood hunger by helping reach at-risk children through a hands-on learning tool that fosters an interest and understanding of the importance of good nutrition.
FoodNetwork.com, the number one food site on the web, will feature a six-episode web series chronicling the building and opening of the Good Food Garden. The first episode launches Friday, May 15, with the series running through early August.
The Good Food Garden is located at the Dunlevy Milbank Center, 14-32 W. 118th Street, between Lenox and 5th Avenues. *Please contact Ellen Lubell, Director, Public Relations, The Children’s Aid Society - (212) 949-4938, ellenl@childrensaidsociety.org to schedule a tour of the garden.
FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network and Web site that strives to be way more than cooking. The network is committed to exploring new and different ways to approach food - through pop culture, competition, adventure, and travel - while also expanding its repertoire of technique-based information. Food Network is distributed to more than 98 million U.S. households and averages more than 9 million unique Web site users monthly. Food Network programming is available internationally in more than 150 countries. Food Network is headquartered in New York, and maintains offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Knoxville, Tenn. Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), which also owns and operates HGTV (www.hgtv.com), DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com), Great American Country (www.gactv.com) and Fine Living Network (www.fineliving.com), is the manager and general partner.
Share Our Strength_ is the leading national organization working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. It weaves together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger and ensure they have nutritious food where they live, learn and play. Since its inception in 1984, Share Our Strength has raised over $245 million, providing support for more than 1,000 groups around the world working to end hunger. For more information, please visit Share Our Strength (www.strength.org).
The Children’s Aid Society was founded in 1853. It is one of the nation’s largest and most innovative non-sectarian agencies, serving 150,000 of New York’s neediest children and their families with a network of services that includes community schools, neighborhood centers, camps, adoption and foster care services, teen pregnancy prevention, education, health and recreation. The Children’s Aid Society is a founding member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the vast majority of Children’s Aid’s sites are Boys & Girls Clubs. For more information, please call 212-949-4938 or visit www.childrensaidsociety.org.
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