It’s time! It’s time to register online for a free tree. You have two weeks to reserve a free tree online here.

Friends of Brook Park in collaboration with Per Scholas is excited to announce our first Tree Giveaway at Brook Park.

Choose one of four tree varieties: Serviceberry, River Birch, Eastern Redbud, or Chokecherry.

Your free tree will be available at Brook Park on Sunday April 19th. You’ll have a whole hour at the beginning of the event to pick it up. If registration is full or you arrive after the first hour, a limited quantity of trees will also be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the event.

 When: Sunday, April 19th 2015 from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
 Where: Brook Park at East 141st Street and Brook Avenue

Please note that to pick up a free tree, you must agree to the Tree Requirements:

• To plant in one of the five boroughs.
• To keep trees properly watered and maintained.
• NOT to plant your tree along streets, in city parks, in containers, terraces, balconies or on roofs.

This two hour Tree Giveaway event immediately follows the South Bronx Unite annual bike tour. It’s free too. Join us!

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The Bronx River Art Center Presents:
The Sculpture of Food

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Opening reception Friday, March 20th, 6-9pm, at 305 East 140th Street, Bronx, NY.
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On view from March 20th to April 11th, the second of exhibition series
Food Systems, Surroundings & Sensibilities.
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Saturday, April 11th Foraging Tour by SPURSE
The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to announce The Sculpture of Food, the
second in a two-year series of ten exhibitions that will run through 2016, entitled Food
Systems, Surroundings & Sensibilities. The exhibition will open with a reception on Friday
March 20th from 6 to 9pm at BRAC’s temporary gallery space in Mott Haven, the Bronx.
If sculpture can explore the physical, tactile implications of material and all of the cultural
significance that it brings with it, then The Sculpture of Food achieves this transference of
meaning through that which we eat. In the works on display, food is both a building block
for an art object and an idea to be conveyed. The materials chosen by each artist to
construct the works, whether they be stone, fur, paper or candy, create significance that
could contradict or add to the cultural weight that belongs to an everyday package of candy
or a bloody side of beef.
Curated by Karine Duteil, The Sculpture of Food is part of BRAC’s larger curatorial effort to
draw attention to food as a creative medium and muse, indicator of culture, and pressing
social and political issue, most importantly specific to the Bronx.

More about the exhibitions series:
This exhibition series is designed to shine light on the fact that although The Bronx is at the heart of New York
City’s food system (the Bronx Terminal Produce Market supplies fruits and vegetables to supermarkets and
restaurants across the city, feeding millions of its inhabitants). Ironically, many parts of the borough are
identified as “food deserts.” This paradox engenders questions that our project will seek to answer: How are
Bronx residents affected by available food choices? What are the challenges for a 21s t- century city to feed all of
its population? How are ideas of sustainability, livability and healthy environments being explored –and how
should they be implemented for the future of our community? What roles can artists, community organizations
and local activists play within these scenarios? The conceptual framework of Food: Systems, Surroundings &
Sensibilities addresses these perspectives in order to identify inspiring and achievable solutions through the
cross-fertilization of artists with our community’s diverse groups of inhabitants and within its specific and
distinctive landscape.
About the Bronx River Art Center:
Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum
for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, and Presenting
Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource, the Bronx
River. For more information visit www.bronxriverart.org
This project is supported in part with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works; The New York
City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and The New York State Council on the Arts with
the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature. Related education and public programs
are supported, in part, by Con Edison, the 42nd Street Development Corporation, and the generosity of our patrons.
The Bronx River Art Center expresses its appreciation for the support of The City of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Bronx
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Councilmember Ritchie Torres, and members of the Council’s Bronx Delegation.
Special thanks to our local partners:
The Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op, a project that offers organic coffee sourced locally in Chiapas, Mexico from
Zapatista autonomous farms. Our goal is to connect social movements and geographical regions: Chiapas and New York
City, with the goal of creating a horizontal financial flow between social movements.
Conti’s Pastry Shoppe
786 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10462
Friends of Brook Park is a leading community-based environmental organization in the South Bronx. We
engage youth and adults in organic gardening, Community Supported Agriculture and arts and indigenous
cultural events and activities that convey a deep respect for the Natural world. In addition we are strong
advocates for environmental justice, waterfront access and green space development.
Corbin Hill Food Project was founded by a group of Harlem-based community investors, 51 percent
of whom were Black or Latino, and 72 percent were women. Its goal is to connect upstate farmers
with the urban communities most in need of fresh produce. Its Farm Share program, in which
individuals or families buy “shares” of fruit and vegetable harvests, has locations in Harlem, Washington Heights,
Brooklyn, and the Bronx. The Farm Share allows participants to pay by the week or month, and receive a discount if
paying with SNAP (food stamp) benefits.”

South Bronx Environmental Justice Waterfront Bike Tour & Tree Giveaway

When: Sunday, April 19^th

11-1:30: Waterfront Bike Tour

1:30-3:30: Tree Giveaway

Where: Meet at Brook Park, East 141st Street and Brook Avenue

Participants of all ages will visit sites along the community-designed Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan, including the proposed Lincoln Avenue waterfront park, the 132^nd Street pier and the historic Port Morris gantries.  Participants will also learn about local organizing campaigns against subsidies to the trucking company FreshDirect as well as pollution and unjust land use from polluting fossil fuel power plants and waste transfer facilities that line the Bronx Kill waterway. Hurricane Sandy hit this flood zone during low tide, causing 4.5 foot flooding in the area, with forceful waves that ripped a pier from its concrete foundation. The tour, organized together with Times Up, will highlight the community’s longstanding vision for the public waterfront land, who is working with the community and who is working against the community. At 1:30, we will return to Brook Park to join Friends of Brook Park, Per Scholas and New York Restoration Project in providing 100 free trees as part of the MillionTreesNYC initiative.

We forced a re-vote on $10M in subsidies to FreshDirect! Join us Thurs, Feb 19, 9:30am!

Feb 16, 2015 — Join Us
for the Empire State Development RE-VOTE
on $10 Million in FreshDirect Subsidies
Thursday, February 19, 9:30 am
633 Third Avenue
37th Fl Conf Room

Also Email Cuomo here.

“No $ to Fresh Direct!” is the message!

RSVP: CLICK HERE and call 212-803-3794

Last August, the New York Empire State Development Board (ESD) gave preliminary approval to a $10 million subsidy being sought by FreshDirect to relocate to the South Bronx. Following public outcry and a statutory requirement that ESD give primary consideration to the needs and desires of the local community, a public hearing took place in Mott Haven three months later in November. At that time, upwards of 200 Mott Haven-Port Morris residents, physicians, political leaders, religious leaders, labor leaders, business owners and nonprofit organizations provided testimony (in person and electronically) against the subsidies. FreshDirect bused in nearly 100 of its employees (paid $7/hr to be there) to manufacture support, but not one single local resident testified in favor of the project. The ESD Board will now re-vote.

If you missed the hearing last November, highlights are hyperlinked :
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8e8f7d25f762511b30a1647ca&id=e299c15246&e=b070c7d6c9

Take three minutes to nominate the Gantries!

Pressures of gentrification and decay continue. Look at what the Mayor announced.

It could be good, or it could mean ruin for preservation and open space public access opportunities. It is up to us.

Since 1988, the National Trust has used its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places to raise awareness about the threats facing some of the nation’s greatest treasures. The list, which has identified 253 sites to date, has been so successful in galvanizing preservation efforts that only a handful of sites have been lost.

They are now accepting nominations for the 2015 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Please consider nominating the Gantries to the 2015 11 Most Endangered list.

Here is the link.

Here are two examples of nominations your neighbors have already sent for you to use some language if you want.

More from our website, with photos.

Here is the link to nominate the Port Morris Gantries.

Dear Friends of Brook Park community,

Did you know that Friends of Brook Park has its very own Farm Share?

The Corbin Hill Winter Farm Share offers all sorts of fresh produce for your family — delivered straight from New York State farms!
We bring you:
* A Winter Share produce box — packed with items such as hearty greens, cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, apples and greenhouse lettuce, always selected based on what’s in season and grown in New York State using sustainable farming methods.

* Extra shares, including a Dozen Egg Share, a winter Fruit Share (apples, plus one preserved product), a winter Bean Share (two types of beans, one pound of each) — PLUS two new shares, a Dairy Share (butter, yogurt and cheese) and Bread Share (multigrain loaf and corn tortillas).

* A la carte “Add-On” options including honey, maple syrup, jam, tea, and farm-made lip balms and hand salves.

How to sign up? Visit Corbin Hill’s Winter Farm Share Guide for all the details, including information on the reduced-price “Money Match” program for SNAP (food stamp) participants. If you know of anyone not online, Corbin Hill also has paper enrollment forms available in English and Spanish.

Winter deliveries are the second Tuesday of the month (February 10 and March 10), and the deadline to sign up for each is the second Tuesday of the month (February 3 and March 3). Delivery is from 4-7 p.m. You need to sign up in advance so that there will be a delivery for you — so do it now! The next deadline is a little less than a week away!

Questions? Contact Corbin Hill at info@corbinhillfarm.com or 646-793-0033.
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ALSO!
We have a new egg and maple syrup CSA in Mott Haven!

You can order one or both and we are hoping to have all orders in by Wednesday to fill our egg requirement of ordering 50 dozen! Eggs are just $4.75 per dozen and the CSA is one delivery per month for five months! Such a great deal! The eggs are from Trinity Farm, our local farmer who was selling at the market this summer! The maple syrup will be delivered to my house in late April and is $80 per gallon. You can choose between grade a and grade B. We did a small CSA last year with the syrup and it was fantastic!

The best part is you can order it all online!

Here is the online link and please feel free to share with friends and in social media because we welcome lots of folks to sign up!

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