Food & Agriculture Changemakers Program

Project by: Ashley R., Lesly A., and Ana Sara A.

These students were inspired by their learnings at Montclair Community Farms about all of the benefits of garden cats, and the love that our parks department showed to our RCE Learning Garden cats, that they designed and proposed a sanctuary for our garden cats that also addresses 2 pressing needs for the garden: seating and storage. 

Project By: Sam A.

This student aims to connect local with Hunger Free UIC to divert unsold/ugly produce to those in need! 

Project By: Neelay T. and Hassan E.

This best friend duo is tag-teaming to design a composting app that connects the community with local community compost sites. The app will allow community compost sites to set a schedule for when folks can drop off their food scraps. App users will be able to seamlessly locate and schedule a time to drop off their food waste. 

Project By: Alexander N.

This student spent the summer researching about and testing accessibility retrofits to the garden and compiled recommendations for making community gardens more accessible. 

Project By: Volodymyr L. and David T.

Inspired by the vertical garden installations we saw in the community, this duo came up with a proposal for a vertical garden installation for the RCE Learning Garden at West Hudson Park for installation in Spring 2026. 

Project By: Suzana T., Eduardo S., and Grace L.

This best friend trio is hoping to make West Hudson (and Hudson County generally) a safer home for birds. Together, they are compiling educational content for posting on the Hudson County 4-H Instagram during earth week to educate the public about birds. Moreover, the created seed bombs using native seeds that attract local bird populations and purchase seeds for the local library where a seed library will be installed in Spring 2026 – to encourage the community to plant seeds that attract local bird life. 

Project By: Zofia J.

This student is using her love of service and the people power at Harrison High School, to connect Harrison High teens with meaningful opportunities to do service in the community related to maintaining the local ecosystem and more. 

Project By: Ester F. and Zulema V.

These students teamed up over the summer to collect food stories from the local community. Together, the compiled a food stories cook book that highlights food memories, recipes and more from the community – with the goal of showing how food unites people. They also compiled seed requests from the community and folded it into a proposal to the Kearny Public Library for the installation of a seed library in April 2026. The seed library planning is underway. 4-H will provide free education to the community through Bloom Labs, teaching the community how to use the seed library and tips for planting. The seed library will be managed by Kearny Public Library and community members will be encouraged to pick up seeds and plant! 

View Their Community Food Story Project Here

Project By: Aanya P. & Anisha C.

These students are raising awareness that ugly/imperfect produce is still fresh and usable with their Instagram campaign on their page @foodmattersnj. 

In their own words: “After researching to find out that grocery stores have been throwing out thousands of produce every day, we’ve decided to embrace the idea of ugly produce via widely utilized platforms such as Instagram. We want people to acknowledge that picking and choosing for a perfect-looking product encourages the rest to be in the trash. From factual stories, posts, informative captions, and voice, we want to raise awareness and change the way people pick out their groceries because looks don’t alter the healthiness of produce.” 

Project By: Advik V. 

This student aims to connect local supermarkets in his neighborhood of West Side, Jersey City with food banks such as Hunger Free UIC to divert unsold/ugly produce to those in need! 

Project By: DeAnte’ S.

This student created recommendations for community gardens to make their spaces produce more healthy food and become more welcoming to those who need healthy food. By using Minecraft, he created a digital dream space that he hopes will become reality! 

Project By: Hillary G.

This student noticed tire shops near her home had piles of discarded tires that were being sent to be burned/destroyed. She is now diverting a bit of that tire waste to become beautifully painted native plant planters in local community gardens! 

Project By: Jay P., Neal P. & Neelay T.

hese students noticed how much of produce scraps normally got thrown out while cooking a meal, and created a recipe book on how to use those commonly discarded food scraps. They have meat and vegan meals along with some dessert! 

As a pivot to this project, Neal continues to do food waste reduction work in the community through his work on the FoodResQ app in partnership with Farm-to-Table. Neelay continued his work by proposing a community composting app in 2025 and Jay continues to raise awareness through school-based projects. 

View Their Food Scraps Cookbook Here

Project By: Kai M.

This student is teaming up with a student club in her school and the culinary class to cook nutritious home cooked meals for homeless women in a nearby shelter! 

Project By: Sharon O.

This student wants to increase the knowledge of food waste in their school by creating a school club focused on reducing food waste and composting extra waste in their school!