Brownsville Partnership Farmer's Market

Are you hungry for food? But not just any food – amazingly fresh, ripe produce that is local and organic? I think your next market destination is the Brownsville Partnership Farmer’s Market on Livonia and Rockaway. The Brownsville Partnership has partnered with GrowNYC to provide healthier food to local Brownsville residents. Every Friday from 2PM to 6PM, we have a stand right across the 3 subway stop. With tables lush with corn, onions, scallions, beets, radishes, cherries, blueberries, and oh, so much more, it’ll be a feast for the eyes as well as hungry bellies. We take WIC, Health Bucks, Food Stamps/EBT, and cash. For every $5 EBT/Foodstamps you spend, you get $2 of FREE Health Bucks. By buying our produce, not only will you be helping out your health, but you’ll be directly supporting the Brownsville community and local farmers.

The Brownsville Community

Each Youthmarket farm stand is like a smallbusiness operated by its staff of teen entrepreneurs. We have employed threeBrownsville teenagers – Kashaun, Toby, and Douglas. After attending GrowNYC’s two-day training in Manhattan and attending various meetings at the Brownsville Partnership office, we’ve prepared them to organize and operate an urban farm stand in Brownsville.

With the guidance of Shane, our experienced Youthmarket coordinator, these young New Yorkers learn all aspects of small business management, including customer service, promotion, and marketing. They’ve also discovered the price and quality advantages of eating seasonal, local produce, as well as the nutritional value of the food they sell.

The Local Farmers

GrowNYC purchases wholesale quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables from local producers participating in the Greenmarket program or at the wholesale market for local growers in Hunt’s Point. This system provides farmers with additional revenue without requiring them to make the costly investments associated with retailing. Because most of the farmers who supply our markets have insufficient staff to handle multiple markets on a single day, the sales achieved through our market would otherwise be difficult to achieve. Furthermore, by expanding the market for locally grown produce, our market helps to keep regional farmland in production and reduce carbon emissions.

We’re going to start cooking classes sometime soon, so be on the look out!

by Shawn Brooks


In the mist of a city wide heatwave, an inferno was setting the streets ablaze in Brownsville Brooklyn. The young and the old all came out to soak up the sun, the water and, and the rhythmic vibes of the 2nd part of the 2nd annual Pitkin Summer Plazas celebrating the Brownsville Community and its merchants that align the Pitkin ave strip. If you weren't playing Bingo for prizes, you prolly were either riding one of the free scooters or rented a free bike from Bike and Roll of NYC. Maybe you were just enjoying the sweet sounds of Gospel harmonizing from the New Life Seven Day Adventist Praise Team or grooving to the sounds of Central America coming from the WAGAYUI BAND out of Gautemala. A good time was had by all no matter what you came for. The storm approached(approaching storm band) as the kids splished and splashed in the outdoor pool and sprinklers.

If you walked further down the strip you would have seen childrens face covered with mask they just made under the Arts & Craft tent. Or you might've even seen little kids walking up to you offering you a neighborly smile and a friendly hello with the newly made sock puppet. If you missed out on all of that, don't kick your self just yet. because you'll have one more opportunity to celebrate with us Saturday July 24th same time, same place.. dont be late and dont forget the camera! see you there!

First Easter egg hunt at Betsy Head Memorial Park in Brownsville, Brooklyn

BY Randy Kreider DAILY NEWS WRITER
Sunday, April 4th 2010

Easter came a day early in Brooklyn yesterday morning, when dozens of eggs-cited children stormed Betsy Head Memorial Park for a massive egg hunt.
It was the first Easter event at the Brownsville park, but kids hoped it would become an annual spring tradition.
"I wish I had an egg detector," said Mirlaine Tanis, 10, who lives nearby. "I like the colors, like light pink, and the dresses you get to wear."
"I like the chocolate," added her brother, Christian, 8.
He was not alone.
"My favorite thing about this is the candy," said Amber Williams, 7, who accumulated a massive supply of sweets during the bash. "I think I will find 60 eggs because when it comes to eggs, I'm not kidding."
Amber also won the Easter hat contest, scoring her even more candy.
Her mother - who made the pink hat with carnations and an Easter bunny on top - was happy to be outside in her neighborhood with so many people having fun. "It's a beautiful day," said Vanetta Williams, 31. "It's sunny outside, and it's something fun to do.

Former NBA man Gregory Jackson needs help getting aid from Brownsville Recreation Center to Haiti

Clem Richardson


Maisel/NewsGregory "Jocko" Jackson, executive director of the Brownsville Partnership and Brownsville Recreation Center, runs myriad services for the Brownsville, Brooklyn community.
Gregory Jackson needs a little help.
The director of Brooklyn's Brownsville Recreation Center has a large room full of a tractor-trailer's worth of food, water and clothing that local residents donated for Haitian earthquake victims.
Now Jackson can't get anyone to take the pallets of supplies off his hands.
"We called a lot of groups and no one will take it," Jackson said. "The community gave so much stuff because we know what it is to need and not have. Now we need to get it where it is meant to go."
For Jackson, a Brownsville native and former NBA player who returned home - and to the center - in 1985 so he could help make it better, the quantity of supplies collected for Haiti is just more proof of the difference in how the community is and how it is seen by outsiders.
"People hear Brownsville and think of bad things," he said. "There are a lot of great things going on here.
"We live in a village just like the [Greenwich] Village. We do things in our neighborhood just like they do anywhere else."
Much of what happens revolves and evolves around Jackson, 59, who joined the center as a recreation specialist and 10 years later was given the reins.
It was a natural fit.
"I grew up in this building," he said. "I was born and raised in the neighborhood. I get a lot more satisfaction out of being here because I'm from the neighborhood."
Jackson said his first task when he assumed the directorship was to make the building more neighborhood friendly.
"It was like the building was off-limits before," Jackson said.
"They used to have metal detectors and that thick glass panels when you came through the front door. What is the purpose of that? We got rid of all that."
Jackson began running a dizzying array of programs and services out of the building at 1555 Linden Blvd., from meal and food bank programs for seniors to homework help, computer and sports programs for younger members.
There is a computer resource center, an indoor pool that Jackson wants to renovate, and fitness and dance rooms.
When the Empire Ballroom closed two years ago, removing one of the last roller skating rinks accessible to the community, the center started hosting free, weekly Friday skate nights, complete with a deejay and lights, in the center's gym.
Recently Jackson began soliciting bicycle donations for another creation, the Buffalo Soldiers Bike Club, which will teach neighborhood children to ride safely. A former New York Knick, he coaches the Reeves Drakeford Brownsville Jets, a local basketball team.
Jackson is also executive director of the Brownsville Partnership a group he started two years ago to help local people in danger of losing their homes or being evicted from their apartments access to needed city services.
"A lot of people just do not know what help is out there," Jackson said.
The center's programs extend well beyond its doors.
Jackson said each summer they sponsor a "Train Stop Show," where local bands perform live in subway stations that run through the community.
"It's a live show, with speakers, a band, microphones, the whole works," Jackson said.
Jackson is most proud of the Brooklyn Old-Timers Week. Held each July - this year's kicks off July 30 - it's a celebration of all things Brownsville. Last year, the event brought an estimated 35,000 people out to play.
"A guy called me the other day to ask when we would have it this year," Jackson said. "He was in Germany, about to be deployed to Iraq, and he wanted to plan his furlough time around it."
This year's program will also feature the first presentation of the Joyce Shelby Award, named for the late Daily News Brooklyn Bureau writer who died last year.
The father of nine and grandfather of seven, Jackson won the city Parks Department's W. Allison and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis Award last month for his "extraordinary dedication to the community he serves."
Ever the Brownsville booster, Jackson used his acceptance speech to invite everyone to Brownsville.
crichardson@nydailynews.com

Brownsville in Photos

Obama in Brownsville?

Just imagine- President Obama meeting with residents of Brownsville in the middle of Betsy Head Park during a beautiful Spring day in May. At the beginning of his speech, President Obama would thank and congratulate Brownsville for a record turnout vote in November 2008.

After a New York Times article written by Samuel Roberts stating, “[a]ccording to the preliminary machine count on Tuesday, Mr. Obama carried the predominantly black 55th Assembly District, which includes Brownsville, with 98 percent of the votes from the nearly 35,000 people who cast ballots”; a certain momentum ran through the streets. President Obama restored HOPE within the community. You could feel the PRIDE oozing out through the streets. 98% of the VOTE in Brownsville is a HUGE accomplish if he only knew.

Just imagine if we use that same momentum and 98% of the families in Brownsville complete the Census form. Brownsville would become a local stop for all US Presidents.

Let’s get out there Brownsville. Let’s complete those Census forms and get President Obama out to Brownsville.

Alicka

When you hear the word Brownsville...

One question 50 people: Vincent, a community organizer with the Brownsville Partnership decided to ask 50 people in and around Brownsville, “When you hear the word ‘Brownsville’, what comes to your mind?”

There have been some very interesting responses to this simple but yet complicated question. It’s a simple question because for some young people they most likely think about the here and now. What’s going on in the neighborhood as they presently see it? It’s a complicated question to many old timers because it forces them to think about what used to be. The answer often reveals details about a community where children were raised by the entire village. Today, children seem to fend for themselves. Its survival of the fittest by any means necessary. The old timers talk about a time when family used to host “Rent parties” for families needing a little extra help for the month. Today you have the need for organizations such as the Brownsville Partnership because families are becoming homeless and forced into the shelter system at alarming rates. Old timers talk about bustling parks, fresh fruits and vegetable stands and community shops carrying anything and everything you could possibly need. Today Brownsville is packed with 99 cent stores and corner stores with anything but healthy food.

What I see is a community with rich history, residents with the resilience to keep going and children with so much potential that only the sky can limit them. I’ve been fortunate enough to live in many places in and out of New York and have had the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. But there is no place like Brownsville and I haven’t met one person that could measure up to personalities I’ve met in Brownsville. There’s no place like home.

I encourage everyone to visit Brownsville, Brooklyn and if you would like a personal tour, you can reach out to anyone at the Brownsville Partnership. After your visit, I invite you to ask yourself, “When you hear the word ‘Brownsville’, what comes to your mind?”

Alicka