Meet the Changemakers

Green Village Initiative (GVI) is an urban agriculture and food justice organization in Bridgeport, CT. Its mission is to grow food, knowledge, leadership, and community through urban gardening and farming, to create a more just food system in Bridgeport. The GVI Youth Leadership Program cultivates leaders in agricultural, food justice, career readiness, and leadership knowledge skills through the Summer Farm Crew and Food Leader Advisory Group (FLAG) programs. Youth not only develop an understanding of our food system, but they also forge meaningful connections with their neighbors, land, and city as they grow.

Green Bronx Machine (GBM) builds healthy, equitable, and resilient communities through inspired education, local food systems, and 21st century workforce development. Dedicated to cultivating minds and harvesting hope, GBM’s school-based model, using urban agriculture aligned to key school performance indicators, grows healthy students and high-performing schools to transform communities that are fragmented and marginalized into neighborhoods that are inclusive and thriving. GBM grows vegetables, the vegetables grow students, and the students grow happy, healthy, and thriving classrooms, schools, and communities en-route to better health outcomes.