Tug of War at Sunday's Food Co-op Potluck in Bay Ridge

More than 60 people attended the Bay Ridge Food Co-op Potluck Picnic last Sunday, marking the first year of the co-op’s membership drive. Intended to raise awareness of this September's "New York State Locavore Challenge," the picnic was held at Shore Road and 79th Street. Those in attendance brought food made of all locally sourced ingredients.

Photo courtesy of the Bay Ridge Food Co-op

Bed-Stuy Duo Raises Funds to Launch Organic Market

Residents in Bed-Stuy have limited options when it comes to organic and locally produced foods; eight in 10 food stores in the neighborhood are reported to be bodegas. In response to this lack, two women, Darell Brown and Evelyn Oliver, together founded Organic Bed-Stuy, a grocery that will not only bring organic foods to the under-served neighborhood, but will also educate residents about healthy eating.

“We’ve been developing the idea for over a year now,” said Brown, who grew up in Bed-Stuy, moved to other neighborhoods in the borough and then came back. “Once I moved back I found out that this is something that is really needed.”

To help get their project off the ground, Brown and Oliver turned to Kickstarter, an all-or-nothing based fundraising web site, which awards a project money only if it is fully-funded by pledges. Organic Bed-Stuy’s goal, set in the middle of June, is $20,000, and the deadline to reach it is Monday. Click here to visit Organic Bed-Stuy's Kickstarter page.

The store will still open even if the Kickstarter goal isn’t reached, said Brown, but it might take longer to do without the fundraising. The project will be funded in part through winnings from the Brooklyn Public Library’s Power Up! business plan competition, from which they took home second place and $5,000 earlier this year.

Organic Bed-Stuy will offer one-stop-shopping organic goods, with fruits and vegetables sourced locally from a farm in New Jersey. Right now, says Brown, residents in the neighborhood have to travel to several different stores or leave the area completely in search of organics.

“People want to keep their dollars here but end up having to go outside the neighborhood,” she said

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Because Bed-Stuy is a community plagued by higher than normal rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease, Brown said she wants to offer nutrition and cooking classes to the community. She also hopes to start a farm exchange with their farming partner, wherein people grow produce on his unused land.

While searching for a permanent location — Brown said she has two in mind — she is operating at the Malcolm X Farmers Market to get the word out to residents.

She and Oliver have reached out to community organizations throughout the process and she says, so far “the response has been great.” From the time they developed their business plan to when they started searching for locations, the response has increased threefold.

“A lot of people really want to see this happen,” she said.

City Council Passes Expanded Recycling Legislation

Last Thursday the City Council passed a package of legislation that represents the first significant expansion of the city’s recycling program since it was created in 1989.

Currently, the city only collects numbers 1 and 2 plastics, limited mostly to bottles and jugs. The new legislation would require the Department of Sanitation (DOS) to collect all rigid plastic containers, including yogurt tubs, take-out containers, flower pots and medicine bottles. This component of the bill wouldn’t take effect, however, until a new recycling facility at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park is completed, set for mid-2012.

After the facility is open, officials say the city will analyze the cost of recycling the new types of plastics and present the finding to the council. The facility will be privately owned and operated.

Another feature of the legislation is expanded public space recycling, with 200 new recycling bins installed at public spaces around the city over the next three years, and a total of 700 bins installed within the next 10 years. Right now, there are about 300 such bins around the city.

DOS would also be required to establish a citywide textile collection. A voluntary manufacturer and retailer take-back program would be established for unwanted household paint, which currently makes up about 50 percent of household hazardous waste.

Recycling at city schools would be improved under the legislation, with recycling coordinators established in every school and recycling bins provided in every classroom. Leaf and yard waste composting and collection would also be improved citywide.

DOS would be required to create a guide to the residential recycling program and provide training for owners and employees of buildings with nine or more units that have been fined for improper recycling. The fine structure would also be different under the new legislation. Small property owners would receive different fines than those of large residential and commercial buildings.

“Our legislation will divert over 8,000 tons of plastic every year away from landfills and incinerators,” said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “That’s equal to the amount of trash produced by nearly 10,000 people each year. This is one step closer to making New York City cleaner and greener for our current and future residents.”

— With reporting by the Associated Press

Sunday: Local Food Potluck in Bay Ridge

This Sunday, August 1, the Bay Ridge Food Co-op will celebrate its first "birthday" (in quotations because it's not exactly started yet) with a potluck picnic of local food from noon to 4 p.m. at Shore Road and 79th Street. Intended to raise awareness of this September's “New York State Locavore Challenge,” the picnic will feature a kids’ balloon toss, tug-of-war, and a kickball game, among other activities.

Attendees can bring food that uses locally-sourced ingredients wherever possible — and that can last several hours in the heat.

Recycle Plastic at the Park Slope Food Coop

Bring your clean, dry plastic to the Coop on the second Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the third Thursday of every month from 7 to 9 p.m. and the last Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Here is what’s collected:

• Numbers 1 and 6 clear plastics — mouth is wide or wider than the body, meaning not bottles. Labels okay.

• Number 5 — plastic tubs, cups and specifically marked lids and caps. Must be especially clean and dry. Discard any with paper labels, or cut the labels off.

• Plastic film and bubble wrap. One hundred percent transparent only — you must be able to see through the plastic. No colored or opaque. No paper labels. Minimal writing okay.

Be sure to arrive 15 minutes prior to collection time to allow for inspection and sorting of your plastic. Visit www.foodcoop.com for the Coop’s tips on how to be a really great recycler.

It's Not Brooklyn, But...

This Saturday, July 31, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ocean survey vessel, the OSV BOLD, will be open to the public at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan from noon to 4:30 p.m. EPA scientists and staff will give tours of the ship and demonstrate water sampling and research efforts taking place in New Jersey’s and New York’s coastal waters.

The 224-foot-long, 43-foot-wide OSV BOLD is equipped with state-of-the-art sampling, mapping, and analytic equipment including side scan sonar, underwater video, water sampling instruments, and sediment sampling devices, which scientists use in a wide variety of ocean monitoring activities. For more information on the OSV BOLD, visit http://www.epa.gov/boldkids/.

Traveling Environmental Museum To Visit Brooklyn

The EnviroMedia Mobile, an urban nature maritime museum on wheels, will visit IKEA/Erie Basin Park on Sunday, August 15, to continue its Summer Earth Fest 2010, a series of environmental awareness, culture and maritime cultural enrichment events.

An 11-year project of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy under the direction of Ludger Balan, the museum is a way for New Yorkers to “think of our urban environment as a habitat,” Balan said.

The event on August 15, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m., will include live music, public tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and aquatic recreation activities. Attendees will have the opportunity to play in a raffle and to win an IKEA prize at each event.

On Saturday, Aug 28 the EnviroMedia Mobile will visit Canarsie Piers, Gateway National Park, where the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy, in collaboration with the National Park Service, will host the last of its annual Get On The Water NYC — Urban Rivers Tour Series, with a guided eco-cruise of the Jamaica Bay.

The eco-cruise will be held aboard a unique, giant 32- foot Indian shipping canoe that will accommodate 21 paddlers at a time. Those aboard the canoe will explore and discover the living nature and scenic vista of one of the city’s most significant, yet challenged ecosystems.

On Sunday, August 29, the EnviroMedia Mobile will then travel to Bensonhurst Park, and on Sunday September 12 it will return to IKEA/Erie Basin Park for an end of season bash and back to school celebration, featuring a special urban wildlife appreciation and education program and the popular Live! Beneath the Estuary underwater video observation station.

The museum was designed to help educate students about species native to New York’s waterways and how climate change will impact them. “The success of our environment begins with young people,” Balan said. “If they are not connecting, the stewardship will not be there.”

For more information and to register for any of the events, visit http://enviromediamobile.blogspot.com or call (347) 224-5828. 

Photo courtesy of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy