Our 2020 Donors made a Huge Impact
In 2020 Green Bronx Machine had a challenging year, starting with the closing of schools due to the COVID-19 crisis and ending with more economic uncertainty and food insecure neighbors needing healthy food deliveries. With this unparalleled year behind us, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and share some of the important projects you have made possible.
You have helped Green Bronx Machine create more healthy communities and schools by supporting our students and neighbors in our educational and nutritional wellness efforts. In the past year, we helped source, plate, and deliver 2,200 meals daily to our neighbors in public housing. Our staff, volunteers, and students planted the largest organic soil farm in the Bronx through socially distant responsible gardening techniques and helped build farms across NYC. We also provided daily interactive online learning enhancements – such as read-alongs, story-time, and vocabulary building, and nightly online tutorials to some of the most at-risk elementary school children.
And our work has been recognized by many national and local notable organizations: National Council for Science and The Environment, NYC Food Policy Center, CNN, and more. Your support has enabled us to reach significant milestones in 2020. Proudly, we started the first on-line Zoom Cooking Program in NYC for children and families, that delivered groceries and ingredients door-to-door in advance insuring equitable and accessible participation for all. Green Bronx Machine continued to partner with Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, providing weekly grocery deliveries for recovering cancer patients throughout the Bronx. Our popular instructional support and teacher development touched up to 20,000 professionals and partners, providing FREE lessons via the internet and Zoom.
As we reflect on an unprecedented and impactful year, I am even more hopeful about our future. Our new fundraising plan gives us an opportunity to grow our staffing, allowing us to develop more programs that will transform schools, improve educational outcomes, and expanding to new areas of health and wellness education – achieving new heights of mission impact – including the creation of Teaching and Learning Kitchens, Gardens and Pantries in partnership with schools and in public housing. And with your help, we will continue to educate children on food sustainability and wellness, inspire curiosity around the science of growing food, and strengthen connections among individuals and their communities – as we say: “Building unity in our commUNITY!”
Green Bronx Machine is grateful for the generosity of dedicated friends and supporters like you. You have helped us to support the health and education of students and community members, and we are honored to grow from the foundation you have built. With my deepest appreciation, thank you for your partnership.