During the month of March, the New Leaf Restaurant & Bar will introduce its first Farm to Table Lecture Series, which will be held every Wednesday night and feature discussions led by some of the country’s most respected urban agriculturists and green minds.

Participants will enjoy eco-cocktail specials, while learning more about sustainable development and urban agriculture in cities world-wide. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about all of the ways New York City continues to grow green and how you can contribute to creating a healthier, more beautiful NYC.

Drink specials will be offered from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, with lectures beginning promptly at 6:30 pm. Those attending the lecture are invited to enjoy dinner at the New Leaf afterwards.

Featured speakers include:

March 3 – Jeff Moyer, Farm Manager, Rodale Institute
March 10 – Annie Novak, Co-founder, Eagle Street Rooftop Farms
March 17 – Ian Cheney, Filmmaker, Wicked Delicate
March 24 – Louisa Shafia, Author, Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life

For more information, contact Shannon Donohue, NYRP public events manager, at sdonohue@nyrp.org.

NYRP's first-ever Winter Warm-Up event, held on February 13th, 2010, was a huge success! With more than 300 local schoolchildren and community members attending, Winter Warm-Up proved to be this season’s best outdoor event.

Attendees truly enjoyed all the winter activities we had lined up, including our obstacle course and educational winter survival station. Additionally participants lined up in droves to get a taste of some of this season’s hottest and savory soups. Favorites included Hale and Hearty’s all-natural three bean chili and homemade chicken noodle. Other fun-filled physical activities included snow-shoeing through a snow-blanketed Highbridge Park and ice bowling along the banks of the Harlem River. To cap off the event, The North Face provided a variety of free giveaways, such as family camping tents, book bags, jackets, scarves, gloves, hats and mugs.

Did you miss out on the season’s hottest winter event? Don't worry, NYRP has plenty community events scheduled! Check our calendar and community page for more information on our family-friendly events.

The folks here at NYRP love a great flick, especially one that promotes conservation while shedding light on America's waste management practices. That's why we're recommending this great enviromental documentary - entitled Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home- that exposes how waste from one family household can leave a devasting eco-footprint on our global environment.

"Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it's doing to the world."

Whether it's the plastic bags they take home from the grocery store, the plastic water bottles they buy or the air pollution they create taking their kids to and from school, the McDonalds learn from their experience a vital life lesson that most families are unaware of - that for every action there is a reaction that impacts not only their family, but also the entire planet.

"Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations."

To view the film and to learn how you can become a part of the garbage revolution, visit www.garbagerevolution.com.

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer has  released “FoodNYC: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System,” the most comprehensive effort to date to unify and reform New York City’s policies regarding the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food.

The report, a product of the NYC Food & Climate Summit held at NYU in December in partnership with the non-profit Just Food, outlines a package of proposals that will make our food system more sustainable by prioritizing products from New York State, increasing access to healthy food in underserved neighborhoods, and expanding the food economy.

During 29 “breakout sessions” at December’s Food & Climate Summit, experts in agriculture, nutrition and environmental sciences debated and discussed different ideas to improve the city’s food system. They looked at the life cycle of the city’s food supply, from production and distribution to consumption and disposal, with the goal of shaping a policy that integrates energy and climate objectives with social, public health and economic goals. The report details the best and most pragmatic proposals and urges reform in the following areas:

• The city should facilitate the development of rooftop gardens and create an NYC Urban Agriculture Program, which would provide access, resources and information to promote community gardening.

• Redevelop the Hunts Point Produce Market to modernize the food delivery hub and ensure that the 8,500 jobs the facility maintains remain in the city.

• Dedicate city-owned spaces for farmer's markets around the five boroughs.

• Pass legislation that would require 20% of all food purchased by city agencies to come from local producers.

• Educate New York City's children to become healthy and environmentally aware eaters. Students should have access to some type of agricultural production, be it a community garden or urban farm.

• Create a large-scale municipal composting facility, as well as support small-scale composting through education, decentralized composting bins and more pickup locations.

• Ban the sale of bottled water in all city facilities and on municipal property, and increase the use of water fountains and canteens. Plastic water bottles waste an enormous amount of energy to produce, with only a small portion recycled.

• Create an Office of Food and Markets to coordinate and lead systemic reform of the city's food and agricultural policies and programs. Also, amend PlaNYC to include a comprehensive overhaul of the city's food system.

Click here to read the report. To join NYRP in promoting sustainable food production in our garden click here.

Do you have an environmental project for your neighborhood that could use some love? Does your project need funding or volunteers? Do you have a community garden that needs some plants and flowers? Do you have a vision for a green roof or clean energy on the roof of your community center or school? Is there an abandoned lot in your neighborhood that could use attention? Do you want to organize some friends to pick up trash in the park where your pets and children play every day?

Spring is almost here. Soon we’ll be waking up our garden beds, rolling over our compost piles and installing solar panels and wind turbines on our roofs. When the winter thaws, we’ll be itching to get outdoors on the weekends and get involved in the neighborhood. ioby is here to help.

If you have an environmental project that is discrete, site-specific in a NYC neighborhood and working with a small budget that needs funding or volunteers, apply to post your project on ioby.org. ioby stands for “in our backyards” and through a web platform connects donors and volunteers to environmental projects in their neighborhoods. To post a project, just go to ioby.org/projects/submit, create a username and password and fill out the online application.

For more information about what makes an ioby project, check out ioby criteria, ioby eligibility and ioby tips for applying.

Our MillionTreesNYC training program has been featured in the NYTimes.

"The program is part of an unusual outreach effort by the city and a collection of private tree-care companies and nonprofit groups to train urban young people for “green-collar” jobs.

The program, now in its second year, has already had success, parks officials say. Graduates from last year’s class now work as apprentice arborists with the parks department and the New York City Housing Authority, horticulturists with the Prospect Park Alliance, and grounds custodians at Wave Hill and the Central Park Conservancy."

Click here to read the full article.

The MillionTreesNYC Training Program (MTTP) is a unique seven-month program that is inspired by the green-collar jobs movement and designed to engage disconnected New York City young adults – aged 18 to 24 – by providing both on-the-job career training and classroom education in the fields of urban forestry, ecological restoration and urban landscaping. Identified by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity as one of the age groups most in need of marketable employment skills.

Program graduates are prepared for a variety of career paths, including urban forestry management and ecological restoration at the city’s Parks Department, landscape design and installation at NYRP and a variety of horticulture and forestry-related jobs with private companies throughout the New York City metropolitan area. Click here for more information on MTTP.

New York Restoration Project (NYRP) is proud to announce that, in April 2010, NYC Grows – an annual, outdoor gardening festival – will become NYRP’s marquee public event. Poised to be the gardening festival of the season, NYC Grows will be held on Sunday, April 25th  at the recently renovated plaza in Union Square. NYRP is also pleased to share that Organic Gardening magazine – a publication of Rodale Inc. – has joined us as presenting sponsor of NYC Grows.

With an array of hands-on activities being provided that incorporate a fresh take on eco-living, this free, environmentally themed event promises to be bigger and greener than ever!

Community gardening, urban agriculture and sustainable technology are just a few of the many green realms participants will explore throughout the day by engaging in a series of interactive activities, including planting and cooking demonstrations, a greenmarket experience, a tree giveaway, a pop-up garden center and eco-product shopping area.

Younger attendees will experience nature and the city’s great outdoors with NYRP’s NatureMania programming, which includes environmental-inspired word puzzles and games, potting activities, live animals and a children’s reading area. Live bands will provide musical entertainment throughout the day that attendees can enjoy, while lounging in a picnic area constructed for the event. Those who work up an appetite can visit the booths of local, organic restaurants that will be on site to provide food, lead organic cooking demonstrations and even distribute recipes to amateur chefs looking to emulate the creations they have sampled.

Both corporate sponsors and community partners will be on-hand to showcase eco-friendly products and unique greening techniques that are sure to inspire attendees of all ages. Additionally, vendors will offer the opportunity to purchase recycled, fair trade and all-natural merchandise, ranging from cosmetics, house wares, toys and furniture.

So, mark your calendar, and join us for what promises to be the green event of the year! Interested in becoming a sponsor or getting involved in NYC Grows? Contact Shannon Donohue at sdonohue@nyrp.org or call 212.333.2552.

NYRP has partnered up with The North Face to take the chill out of the season with the introduction of NYRP's Winter Warm-up, to be held on Saturday, February 13^th from 11 am to 3 pm. Located in Swindler Cove Park, this event will expand on NYRP’s environmental education programming and will transform the park into a winter wonderland, where attendees can engage in fun-filled, outdoor activities aimed at encouraging local youth to stay active throughout the winter months.

Participants will spend the day putting their athletic skills to the test on a life-size, bouncy obstacle course or join friends and family in ice bowling and tent-building competitions. Families will also enjoy ice fishing demonstrations and a snowshoe walk, while NYRP’s Education staff will lead youth on a winter garden scavenger hunt. Additional highlights include a habitat rove through the park, winter soup tasting and cooking tutorials for winter veggies. There will also be giveaways and prizes for all! For more information, please contact Shannon Donohue, NYRP public events manager, at sdonohue@nyrp.org or call 212.333.2552.

NYRP is proud to announce a new partnership with BK Farmyards – a Brooklyn-based farming network that provides locally grown and affordable food to Brooklyn residents through increased urban food production. An exciting and fruitful venture, this partnership will be instrumental in bringing more residents into two of NYRP’s gardens, while also continuing our mission of promoting healthy eating and sustainable living.

Beginning in March, BK Farmyards will introduce chicken coops in NYRP’s Schenectady Avenue that will be home to up to 50 chickens. Eggs will be sold to local residents through a low-income Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Additionally, BK Farmyards will hold five workshops to educate residents on chicken care and best practices for raising animals in an urban environment.

In NYRP’s Madison Street Community Garden, BK Farmyards will redesign the space to allow for intensive vegetable production by increasing the number of raised planting beds and adding a new rainwater collection system. The revitalized design will utilize horizontal and vertical space to boost the amount of growing space, while adding to the garden’s aesthetic value. Combined with perennial crops and composting, there will also be an area for honey bee hives to make the garden a more productive urban green space.

For more information on how you can join NYRP in becoming a part of the urban farming movement in your community, click here.

This past fall, New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and MillionTreesNYC were featured on PBS’s Victory Garden, television’s longest-running program dedicated to gardening and other outdoor activities. The first of the two segments followed NYRP’s Regional Garden Manager, Jason Sheets, as he lead Victory Garden’s host, Jamie Durie, on a tour of NYRP’s restored Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Community Garden, located in Jamaica Queens.

In this segment, Sheets demonstrated the importance of the garden’s martini-shaped, rainwater collection system and organic compost area. Local community gardeners proudly showed off their produce and groups of students were shown utilizing the garden’s educational center.

Additionally, NYRP’s Executive Director Drew Becher walked Durie through NYRP’s recently renovated Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Garden located in Brooklyn and explained the significance of the garden’s unconventional amenities, which include trellises constructed from glu-lam and concrete pavers made from recycled pieces of sidewalks. To view this segment, click here.

The second segment showed NYRP’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Marketing and Policy, Darin Johnson, as he discussed NYRP’s MillionTreesNYC initiative with gardening correspondent, Paul Epsom. MillionTreesNYC Project Coordinator, Max Litt was later interviewed and seen demonstrating how to plant and care for a tree. The nationally aired episodes highlighted NYRP’s many achievements and shared our best practices for greening and utilizing open spaces with gardeners throughout the U.S. To view the MilionTreesNYC segment, click here.