Food program in South Bronx improves nutrition and gardening skills

Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture and Columbia Climate School launched LEAF, a four-year program to combat food insecurity in the South Bronx, New York.

The initiative provides residents in a high-poverty area with regenerative food, gardening kits, and nutritional education. The program combines food distribution with hands-on learning to help community members grow and cook their own produce. Researchers and community leaders designed the program to create a holistic model for food justice.

Participants receive bi-weekly deliveries of items like eggs, grass-fed beef, and rye berries. They also get seedlings for herbs and vegetables along with bilingual instructions and recipes tested at a partner restaurant. The project emphasizes a participatory approach where researchers and residents learn from one another to build trust and identify specific community needs. Data published in the journal Sustainability shows that the program led to statistically significant increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and gardening confidence among participants.

While initial results from the first year were not statistically significant, the two-year data demonstrated that sustained engagement produces deeper behavioral changes. The researchers plan to expand their study to include focus groups and measurements of carotenoid levels to further prove the program's impact on health.