Clifton, NJ - Seven high school students from Passaic and Bergen Counties are taking action to fight climate change in their communities with the help of City Green.
City Green’s Youth Climate Action Capstone Project, launched in April 2022, is a year-long independent learning opportunity for high school students that deepens their understanding of climate change and empowers them to take action against it in their communities.
Students from Clifton High School, Cresskill High School, and the Passaic County Technical Institute participated in this year's cohort. At the start of the project, the students participated in monthly workshops to learn about climate change and its impacts on the environment, human health, water, and food. With the guidance of City Green’s Agriculture Education Coordinator Isabel Anderson, the students began their action projects by developing proposals, conducting research, designing their project’s components, connecting with resources and stakeholders, and implementing their projects with mini-grant support.
“These high schoolers have incredible enthusiasm and energy to make a change,” City Green’s Executive Director Jennifer Papa shared. “They are passionate and they are excited that there is an opportunity to direct this passion in a real world application with intentional guidance.”
Student projects include building community fridges to minimize food waste, implementing composting programs to use at a school garden at Cresskill High School, creating sustainable school lunch systems by replacing plastic utensils with compostable ones, educating individuals on their carbon footprints through informational flyers, and presenting food system workshops to students at the Boys and Girls Club of Clifton.
A slideshow detailing each of the students’ projects is available here.
City Green is a 501(c)3 urban farming and gardening organization based in Clifton, New Jersey working to revitalize urban areas through agriculture and educational programming. It offers practical, technical and financial resources in support of environmental stewardship, equitable access to healthy food, and ecologically sustainable communities. For more information contact Jasmine Moreano, Director of Community Engagement and Advocacy or visit www.citygreenonline.org.