Mayor Eric Adams just celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Marlboro Agricultural Education Center, at West 11th Street between Avenue W and Avenue X, in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The 9,900-square-foot center will be a “hub for urban agriculture”, adding a rooftop greenhouse that supports raising fish and plants in an already green space. And also, there will be hosted programs to engage with the community and educate young generations on sustainable food production. The investment to build the complex is about 18.2 million dollars and it will be ready for summer 2025, instead of 2027 as firstly planned when the project was launched in 2019.
“All New Yorkers deserve access to healthy, nutritious food–you can’t have Whole Foods in Park Slope and junk food in Brownsville,” Mayor Adams said. “This state-of-the-art agricultural education center will help us get closer to that goal, while providing an invaluable, resilient space that will bring sustainable food, jobs, and education to this community.”
The center will yield fresh, healthy food, and serve as a community gathering space with an educational epicenter. One of the most outstanding programs is The Campaign Against Hunger’s “Green Teens”, a paid farm-based internship where you can receive intensive hands-on training and develop the skills to manage the farms and markets. It will also include hydroponic and soil-based growing; a teaching kitchen with cooking classes for seniors, teens, and adults; aquaponics; an indoor market for the winter; and a multipurpose room for job training.
