Seeds in the Middle, named by fourth graders in central Brooklyn, inspires parents, educators, students and their community to access all the opportunities New York City has to offer, beginning with improving their health, enhancing arts education and greening their environment. We are joyful, respectful, educational and engaging.

Our innovative anti-obesity strategy initiates at schools. We weave together proven programs into a comprehensive package to turn around ills driving down opportunity and advancement. We empower and educate all to get healthy and scale educational and social disparities. Our pilot schools are in Crown Heights, a neighborhood with one of the city’s highest obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates.

We teach how to grow, how to market, how to access and prepare nutritious food, how to exercise, how to engage in the arts, all the elements needed to promote life-changing lifelong health. Our partners come from all walks of life: chefs, athletes, educators, artists, builders and more. We cross cultures. We transform gray into green, destitution into inspiration.

Seeds in the Middle offers joyful, healthy interventions that nurture the whole child and address the multiple obstacles blocking low-income children and families from getting healthy. We teach how to grow edible gardens, run a student-led Hip2B Healthy Market, bring chefs into schools, started soccer, running and fitness programs at school and in the community and music and arts in the schools. We integrate professional development for teachers so that a healthy lifestyle and environmental stewardship becomes organic and sustainable in the school community. To build community, we created Soccer for Harmony tournaments and the Crown Heights Farmers Market. In two years, we have engaged more than 1,000 families, and students and teachers report changing their habits to include more fruits and vegetables, and fitness. This is a pilot for any school and Seeds in the Middle plans to replicate.

http://seedsinthemiddle.org