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Hell's Kitchen Farm Wins $5K Grant to Launch Teen Internship Program

By Maya Rajamani | April 19, 2016 10:25am
 The Hell's Kitchen Farm Project was the winner of this year's Green Festival Community Award.
Hell's Kitchen Rooftop Farm
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HELL’S KITCHEN — The Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project will launch a paid internship program for teens this summer after winning this year’s Green Festival Community Award.

The "farm," which is actually a rooftop garden, on Metro Baptist Church at 410 W. 40th St. — which was the runner-up for the award last year — beat out four other finalists for a $5,000 grant, said food justice coordinator the Rev. Joseph Perdue.

The winner was selected through an online public voting process, which closed last week.

“No single person can take credit for it — it was a group effort all around,” Perdue said. “It makes me very proud of everybody who helped out.”

Perdue and his team accepted the Green Festival Expo’s check at a ceremony yesterday.

With the grant, the rooftop farm will be able to hire up to 10 teenage interns this summer, who will learn about urban farming, social justice and food security, Perdue said.

The garden, which grows vegetables and fruits like tomatoes, beans, okra and apples, gives some of the fruits of its labor away at Metro Baptist’s weekly food pantry.

The remainder is used during the farm’s educational programs, Perdue said last month.

The farm project will post information about the summer internship program on its website within the next few weeks, he added.

“[We’re] happy we are able to make a difference in the community,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work put into the process, and [winning] was just very validating.”