This is some delicious spinach here.
(upbeat music)
My name is Tony Hillery,
the accidental founder and CEO of Harlem Grown.
Harlem Grown is a youth development organization
and our mission is to inspire you to lead happy,
healthy, ambitious lives
through mentorship, hands-on education and urban farming.
I used to own and operate a limousine company.
Very successful, very lucrative,
my kids all going to private school
and I thought that was the end game.
I thought that was success.
10 years ago with the financial crisis,
it hit me like everyone else.
I'm losing business,
losing clients, getting depressed.
And I kept reading the same stories
that everyone reads about New York city schools.
And I was shocked to find
that there was 62,000 homeless children in New York city.
So one day just fighting depression I guess,
I got on a subway on 135th and Lenox,
and I'm walking into the first elementary school I find,
and it was right here.
And I walk in,
I said "I'm here to help".
We all have an image of what homelessness is
and you never have a child in that image.
They're invisible,
they're in the shadows,
but they go to these schools.
Then right across the street was this empty community garden
that turned into a junkyard.
So I made some calls to the city
and found out that it was a
deed abandoned community garden.
They told me how to set up a garden committee,
I did.
Filed the paperwork.
Then I had this.
Hey ladies!
Here on this site we have egg laying hens.
They lay eggs every day.
And here we grow okra, chard, arugella, kale.
We have fruit bearing cherry trees, pear trees,
basil,
tomatoes,
good old sage.
Something magical happens when these kids
plant their own plant,
because now that's their plant.
If a child plants it, they will eat it.
They will taste it.
80% of the time that they eat it,
they like it and would like more of it.
Our first harvest was 38 pounds of produce.
Now we do about 6,000 pounds of organic produce a season,
and everything is free of charge.
This is our hydroponic greenhouse,
which is soilless farming.
And here we are growing rainbow chard, chard.
We have different varieties of lettuce.
You have 25,000 bees in here that generate
about a 100 to 150 pounds of honey a season.
And we have free farmer's markets
outside the farm every week.
We offer free yoga every Saturday morning.
This is truly a grassroots organization.
A lot of our money comes from individual donors,
small donations.
We are evolving as we speak now.
We now manage 12 sites in Central Harlem.
Next spring,
we will be 15 sites right here in walking distance.
I mean our biggest crop are our people.
So don't let the fruits and vegetables fool you,
that's what we plant.
We grow healthy children and sustainable communities.
Oh it's so cool, man.
You've got the hydroponics,
you've got the bees buzzing.
That's right.
It's so fun.
That's right.
Where are you going next? (audience claps)
What are your upcoming projects?
Well coming next,
we really came out of the pandemic.
I mean, that was a pivotal moment for us.
It was our finest moment as well.
And an essential moment for your community ofcourse.
Yeah, absolutely.
For every community around the world.
Yeah,
but we have more need
and then we have less ability to provide that need.
Right.
Because of COVID we have less chance of hosting children
Right.
Because children are not being vaccinated.
So we'd have 60 kids, now we have 12.
So what to?
But it's gonna come back around.
Oh yeah, yeah.
We just launched a mobile teaching kitchen
that can go to where the children are.
(Rachael gasps)
So we go to the schools,
to where they live, Oh, that's great.
to their pantry
and we can set up right on the sidewalk
and do something like you do here.
That's so cool!
Yeah, we just launched it last week.
Put some wheels on it.
Yeah, absolutely.
You just put some wheels on it.
That's right.
Well, we wanted to help keep up all of these good works
because so many good things are gonna come your way
with what you're doing.
Our friends at Wonderful Pistachios
and I mean they're wonderful,
I snack on them all the time.
Love pistachios. (Tony laughs)
I travel all over with them.
They're always with me.
Wonderful Pistachios,
they're especially wonderful today
because they're giving $10,000 to Harlem Grown.
Oh, really?
Really.
Oh, yeah.
(everyone claps)
Wow, thank you. Thank you Pistachios.
Did you see? Did you see his face?
Wow It looked like I hit him
Wow, thank you.
It looked like I hit you with a frying pan.
Thank you, I wasn't expecting that.
You like, really? Really?
(both laugh)
It's not every day you get that, you know?
That's cool, right?
It will go a long way, yes?
Absolutely. Thank you so much.
I mean you're just growing by leaps and bounds.
I'm just so thrilled.
You got to come up.
I will absolutely come up
You got to come up
and I love going to Harlem.
You're gonna love it, trust me.
Love it, you gotta air pinky swear.
Okay, Thank you.
(audience cheers)
(clapping continues)
(magical chime)