Biking home through Brownsville, Nora Painten couldn’t help noticing an overgrown vacant lot on Rockaway Avenue, just across from P.S. 323, soaking up the sun. Lots of paperwork and $24,282 through Kickstarter later, Painten now runs a vibrant school garden in the space, teaching little fingers how to plant garlic and teenagers how to turn compost, among other garden tasks.
Tag: Nora Painten
A fateful bike route and some Kickstarter seed money yield a vibrant school garden.
Over the past few years we’ve watched as parents and teachers with a knack for turning parking lots into produce launch a slew of mini farm projects at New York City Public schools. One of those is Nora Painten, the Carroll Gardens teacher who is starting an $8,000 square foot garden project (complete with a chicken coop) in Brownsville with help from students and teachers at nearby P.S. 323. We hosted the teacher/farmer on our HeritageRadioNetwork.com show Monday night, where she spoke about how she scored a contract to garden on the land from the city and is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Brownsville Student Farm Project’s first spring in 2012.
