Program/Organization Name: New Brunswick Urban Ecology Program
Address: Department of Nutritional Sciences, cook College, New Brunswick
Campus
Phone: 732-932-9225
Fax:
Academic Department Affiliation: Nutritional Sciences
Contact Name: Michael W. Hamm
Title/Position: Executive Director
Contact Name: Monique Baron
Title/Position: Associate Director
Phone extension:
E-mail Address: Hamm@aesop.rutgers.edu or Baron@aesop.rutgers.edu
Purpose: To facilitate the growth of sustainable food systems focused
on issues of food, nutrition and the environment. In this spirit we have
developed 1) the community gardening and nutrition program, 2) the youth
farmstand project, 3) the children's gardening and environmental education
program, and 4) the school yard ecology program.
Community Service Area(s): Economic Development, Education, Food/Hunger,
Health, Recreation
Target Population: Youth, Adults, Elderly
Service Providers: Undergraduate students, Faculty, Staff
Fee: No
Eligibility Restrictions for Services:
Current Community Service Projects in New Brunswick:
- Children's Gardening at Robeson Schwartz
- Community Gardening at Robeson Village, Schwartz Homer, Memorial Homes,
Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen (new), Community Policing Target Community
(new)
- School Yard Ecology at Lord-Stirling
- Youth Farmstand at St. Peters, Courthouse, St. Tohue, Train Station.
- (All have a great deal of interaction.)
Program(s)/Organizations Worked With, Within Rutgers: Cooperative
Extension
Program(s)/Organizations Worked With, Within the New Brunswick Community:
- New Brunswick Housing Authority
New Brunswick Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Resident Management Corporation of three public housing communities
Lord-Stirling Principal & Teacher, Community Policing Partnership Program
Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen.
Government and Foundation Grants Successfully Acquired For Community
Projects:
Other Government and Foundation Grants Successfully Applied For:
Resources Available For Community Service in New Brunswick: Knowledge
of community contacts, Academic expertise (nutrition, horticulture, youth,
entrepreneurship, food security), Professional expertise (nutrition, horticulture,
youth, entrepreneurship, food security), Technical assistance (nutrition,
horticulture, youth, entrepreneurship, food security)
New Initiatives and Service Expansions Interested In: We are working
at expanding what we have to a broader area of New Brunswick
Recent Handbooks/Guides: Youth Farmstand Project Manual, Flier
Additional Information: We are expanding the youth farmstand project
statewide this summer with programs (run by local entities) in about four
cities. We are also in the midst of developing a manual for the school yard
ecology an children's gardening projects in order to do statewide teacher
and community training. There is also the emergence of two groups in the
state- the Anti-Hunger Coalition and Farmers Agains Hunger- in which I am
taking an active role.
