Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It is such a pleasure to be speaking with Stephen
Ritz today,
founder of the Green Bronx Machine,
and I have followed his work for many years,
watched it evolve and grow.
And Steve,
you have really devoted your career to improving
not just academic results for kids,
but also health and academic results.
(00:22):
And I know you started initially in the South
Bronx.
That's one of the five boroughs of New York City
for those of you who aren't familiar.
But now you've taken your work around the world.
And I would say bringing in some ways the most
simplest of concepts,
which is the power of a plant to children and to
communities around the world.
(00:43):
So welcome,
Stephen.
Good morning,
Lisa. It's 6 a.
m.
in Dubai.
It's great to hear your voice.
And for those who don't know,
I can even see your face.
Well,
while people may know the work that you've done in
creating gardens and schools and sometimes even the
(01:06):
new technology you've brought around garden growing,
you know,
your work has never just been about growing food,
right?
It's about transforming lives and communities.
And of course,
by and large,
schools have treated learning as something that
happens mostly in your head,
right?
Or as I've heard you say,
from the neck up.
(01:26):
So what do you think we have forgotten or ignored
about what it actually takes for a child to grow
and thrive?
Well,
thank you for the compliment.
But I think,
you know,
what we have forgotten,
both before COVID and certainly after,
is to put the human back into being.
(01:47):
We are human beings.
And,
you know,
the problem is that for so long,
it's all about our egos and what I call the ego
system.
And we have forgotten that we are part of a
larger ecosystem.
So my work moves from being about ourselves to a
greater good.
Thank you for noticing.
You know,
I really am not a farmer.
(02:09):
I have no science background,
no agricultural experience.
You know,
but the cool thing about plants is that inherently
they will grow no matter what.
There's no floaters at the top of the tank.
There's no poop to scoop.
There's nothing that eats their young.
There's no farting or talking back.
I mean,
plants are amazing.
And so are children.
And the notion of taking care of a plant has to
(02:31):
do with giving it the right environment.
And,
you know,
when we see plants thrive,
we see kids thrive.
You know,
I often say we give plants more respect than we
give kids,
you know,
because we're quick to blame kids for failures.
But when plants don't live,
oh,
it's the soil,
it's the light,
it's the water.
You know,
we're so kind and considerate.
But when kids go awry,
(02:51):
we're quick to blame them instead of take
responsibility for the conditions that we've created.
But,
you know.
My commitment,
it's interesting because,
yeah,
we're speaking this morning from Dubai,
but I like to say there's a Bronx in every place
in the world.
And what I mean by that is simply people should
(03:12):
not have to leave their neighborhoods to live,
learn,
and earn in a better one.
And if we all just put a stake in the ground
where we live,
maybe day by day,
act by act,
moment by moment,
we can make our communities and ourselves a little
better than we found it.
So it's about growing high-performing schools and
(03:33):
happy,
healthy children.
But make no doubt about it,
the state of affairs of American health and child
health has never been worse.
So it's a great opportunity to kind of heal
ourselves and heal the planet.
Well,
drive as many gas cars as you want.
Just eat less meat.
Well,
so tell us more.
What is the landscape now today in inner city
(03:55):
schools in the Bronx when it comes to healthy
eating and nutrition?
So what are kids being fed and how does that
shape what's even possible for them to learn?
Well,
input equals output.
Let's be clear.
You wouldn't put vinegar in your Porsche.
You wouldn't plug your precious laptop into a
nine-volt battery,
you know,
that you get in Walmart.
(04:18):
We can't expect people,
we can't expect humans,
we can't expect any living thing to thrive or be
at its optimal functioning with poor inputs.
Now,
whether it's the South Bronx or South Beverly Hills
or here on the south side of Dubai,
kids are eating crap.
We have turned our children into epicenters of
profit for corporate America.
(04:40):
You know,
the childhood obesity,
childhood.
This is the first generation of children that will
not outlive their parents simply because of what
we're eating.
We have more people on this planet,
whether they are wealthy or poor,
with the exception of those who have zero access
to food.
But beyond those,
more people are dying from what they're eating than
(05:01):
because of not having access to food.
And that's just mind-boggling.
So what have you seen change when students actually
like put their hands in the soil,
not just in what they learn,
but like how they show up in the classroom?
So what I've seen change,
and let me be clear,
it's not just with farming,
it's with anything that moves and motivates them,
(05:24):
is when you give children an opportunity to be a
part of something instead of apart from it.
Wow.
Everything changes.
That's really what 21st century learning is really
going to be all about.
Look,
between computers and cell phones and online
learning.
Teachers,
in a lot of ways,
we don't need teachers for content.
(05:46):
What we need teachers for are to keep the kids in
the ring,
so to speak,
is to play nice in the sandbox,
to cooperate,
to collaborate,
to understand protocols and procedures,
to be kind,
to be gracious,
for teamwork.
And when you allow children to be part of something
that is greater than themselves,
and in this case,
to foster life and to better their own life.
(06:09):
On a much larger level,
even to give them entrepreneurial opportunities,
that's a game changer.
This work started as a way to connect young people
to work,
to careers,
to livelihood.
We started,
if you remember,
with high school kids,
over-age and under-credited children who were in and
(06:29):
out of prison.
And what do we know about young people in and out
of prison?
They wind up staying in prison.
One of the things that I'm most proud of that got
me to the point and,
you know,
look,
I'm a work in progress.
And it started with just this whole notion of
living wage jobs.
And when you give children the opportunity to end
poverty on day one,
not get a diploma and come back and go for more.
(06:50):
You know,
when you give a child or an adult a living wage
job,
that effectively ends poverty for them right then
and there.
Yes.
So tell me a bit like so what do you want to
mean?
How did you give them a living wage?
You know,
my work started with 17 overage,
undercredited kids who came to me via the criminal
justice system.
And I was told,
(07:10):
just keep them out of everybody's hair.
You know,
just do anything with them.
Just don't let them bother people.
They put me in a class with 17 kids,
bigger,
stronger,
meaner than me.
Most of them who had kids of their own,
probably on the same reading level.
But the common denominator that we all have three
times a day is eating,
is food.
And,
(07:31):
you know,
when I accidentally learned about growing plants.
That was a game changer.
So what did it lead to?
Well,
it led to the common knowledge that we all knew
somebody that was hungry.
But,
you know,
back then it was stormwater mitigation.
If you remember,
it was green roofs and green walls.
And the mayor,
Mayor Bloomberg at that time,
(07:51):
had incentivized stormwater mitigation and
environmental remediation programs.
And we were able to get these young people jobs
and they were able to thrive in those jobs.
And if you showed up,
I always say,
if you bring your body,
ultimately your brain may follow.
Then,
you know,
if you came and brought your whole self,
not your whole self,
but just your best self,
keep the tattoos and all the other stuff at home.
(08:13):
But bring your best self to work.
Amazing things can happen.
And we became a very nimble and adept workforce.
And things got better really quickly.
You know,
the beautiful thing about environmental work and
beautification is that you see it.
It's not like a research paper.
It's not like studying for some kind of concept
and when will you apply.
(08:33):
You take At the turn of the millennium in New York
City,
there were so many abandoned buildings,
vacant lots,
communities in visual distress that you could go in
there and make a difference in a day.
And these were kids who often showed up and they
weren't making positive differences in communities.
People were mortified of them.
So you're basically making learning visible.
(08:56):
That's it.
I say make everything that I talk about,
even now with kids,
is please make your thinking visible.
What does that look like to make your learning
visible?
And why is that more powerful than a test score?
Listen,
because test scores mean nothing.
Even to me,
they mean nothing.
And look,
I mine data like a MF-er,
(09:16):
okay?
So let me be clear.
I'm not dismissing testing and data.
But I also know-That my kids outperform a lot of
other kids in school simply because they will try
harder on the test to please me.
So if you're disconnected from the system,
the numbers that you're generating usually aren't
indicative of who you are and what you're capable
of.
But again,
(09:37):
being able to make a living wage,
to feel good about yourself,
to go from being apart from success to being a
part of it in ways that benefit you and society
is really awesome.
And that's what this work is all about.
How did you transition over into growing food?
(09:57):
Oh,
great question.
For me,
most of my life,
the four or five food groups were,
you know,
the clown,
the king,
the colonel,
and that wonderful little girl,
Miss Debbie,
you know,
little freshlies in the Ziploc bags.
That's what we knew in our neighborhood.
And ironically,
You know,
I knew something about plants.
There was lettuce.
There was pickles.
You could get a tomato on a burger.
(10:19):
But I did not know about the bounty that I know
about today.
However,
when we started growing things and my whole
movement started with ornamental plants,
when we learned that you could grow plants and eat
them.
That was game-changing.
And,
you know,
it started,
believe it or not,
with the first Whole Foods in New York City.
(10:40):
I will never forget,
you know,
when Whole Foods invited me and my students,
those 17 kids,
to come to the first Whole Foods in New York
City.
What did we see?
We got drunk,
literally,
on fresh fruits and vegetables,
seeing this incredible bounty of these beautiful
things that people were growing,
and the amazing thing is that people were paying
(11:02):
cash for them,
you know,
the margins were huge.
And right then and there it dawned on us that we
could grow flowers or we could grow food,
and then food could become add-value.
And the rest is history.
You know,
that year was yet another year I got fired,
you know,
for introducing young people and saying,
you know,
I brought 17 of those kids to Columbia University
(11:24):
for a talk called 'From Crack to Cucumbers',
where we bought 17 kids who were selling heroin
and crack across New York City prior and found
solace and a better lifestyle by selling cucumbers
and vegetables,
largely the whole thing.
And I want to say thank you to them to this very
day for giving us that opportunity.
It's been game-changing for them and for us ever
(11:44):
since.
And of those 17 kids from 2004,
I'm still in touch with all of them.
And not one has gone back to jail.
That's the power of inclusion.
What you're really showing is how food,
access to food,
growing food,
how it's becoming like a gateway to learning.
And empowerment for these students,
(12:05):
right?
And it's not just those 17 you started doing this
in schools; I've seen videos of you working
alongside in classrooms.
I mean,
I know that you've created curriculum around this
now.
You've got kids knowing working on this every day.
The power of food is really important because no
(12:26):
matter where you go,
and particularly in communities like mine,
people are hungry,
and the option is cheap food.
But I want to back up and say that no child rises
to low expectations.
And,
you know,
sadly,
for a lot of communities and children in
communities like mine,
we have only low expectations.
(12:46):
Oh,
if we get them through high school,
it's a blessing.
No,
that should be the norm for every child.
But when you set high expectations,
you know,
I'd rather fail at six feet than succeed at three
feet.
And what happens too with plants and food is first
and foremost,
growing food is a license to print money.
(13:07):
I meet kids all the time who tell me,
Mr.
Ritz,
I don't like vegetables.
That's great.
Are you allergic to money?
I want to meet the child that's allergic to money
and paying bills because they're not.
So if you theoretically see a seed as one penny
and realize that 30 days later,
that one seed will be a $5 bill and you can do
that en masse.
You're going to get somewhat excited about the
(13:30):
possibility of what we are doing.
So I understand that you're talking about how kids
can actually make a living from what they're doing
with the farmed food.
But I'd love to hear a bit more about whether kids
are actually eating better too.
Like,
are these students learning about vegetables and how
to cook them?
Or have they become over time more interested in
(13:53):
consuming these vegetables?
I'm also curious,
are they enjoying it?
Well,
you know,
here's the real deal.
It's just easier to raise healthy children than fix
broken men.
And I realize that if you get children at a
younger age on a good trajectory of a health,
behavior,
performance in school,
(14:14):
attitude,
you're going to change the game totally.
Now,
there are kids who go awry,
but I'd rather have fewer going awry and more
towards better than,
you know,
dealing with them at the end.
And,
you know,
the beautiful thing is,
I marvel at this.
Listen,
if children grow kale,
they eat kale.
And part of what I've been able to do with little
(14:36):
kids is kind of bake the spinach into the ice
cream,
if you will.
How do you get the healthy stuff and make it sweet
and sexy?
And with older kids,
they were focused.
They knew it was about a job.
And these were kids who were never going to
college.
These were kids who weren't expected to graduate
high school.
So when you're giving them the opportunity to make
(14:57):
a fair wage,
to be treated decently,
that's a welcome sign that many of them have never
seen before.
And then you have to deal with the other stuff,
the availability of food,
health care,
mental health,
housing.
But none of that happens if you're not making
money.
And then you've got to learn how to manage your
money.
Then you've got to learn how to eat.
(15:17):
On the flip side,
with younger kids.
Do you remember the first time you grew a plant in
school?
Think about it.
You know,
that little lima bean seed.
Look at you smiling and everybody out there is
smiling too.
That joy can be transferred again and again and
again.
I started doing this in a way that was able to
happen in a classroom.
So you didn't have to go outside.
(15:38):
You weren't limited by seasonality.
You weren't constrained by toxicities in the
environment,
whether it's lead in the soil or feces in the
soil or no growing space.
The miracle of life was happening.
Right in a classroom,
in front of you.
And we were using technology that was productive
enough not to grow one piece of lettuce,
but to grow a copious amount of food.
(16:00):
And so I figured if I could put this project-based
learning and something that generated engagement into
a classroom and kids could participate with it and
teachers could use it.
And,
you know,
everything I do goes through a teacher lens first.
And then I crossed over to the evil side and
became an administrator.
And we'll talk about that as well.
(16:21):
This would be a game-changer because kids want to
be involved.
Kids want to be engaged.
I've never met the child who said, 'Oh,
please let me come to school and don't engage me
.'Oh,
please,
you know,
come to school and shut my brain down.
I've never met that child.
So the ability to give them something that really
works and then have a party or grow food is
(16:42):
amazing.
Yeah.
So I know that you have taken this outside of the
South Bronx.
And to do that,
you've had to have curriculum.
You've had to incorporate science and you've had to
have some statistics about its success.
How did that happen?
It happened in some ways easier than I imagined.
(17:05):
What you want to do is create systems.
And programs that are seamless,
that don't add another brick to the pile,
but kind of remove some of the bricks from those
crazy walls.
Our film shows that really well.
We have this great new documentary,
although it was filmed many years ago,
called Generation Growth.
And if you give teachers,
I'm a big believer,
(17:25):
that if you give teachers some autonomy, and you
also give them some structure and some benchmarks
and some key performance indicators and some rules,
they're really going to thrive or they're going to
try and make you happy.
And if not,
that's when you have the conversations about how do
we get you to the zone of proximal development or
find you a new career.
But when you're consistent like that and you're
(17:47):
using technology that works,
the rest is easy.
I lead with intention.
And my intention is,
yes,
we're going to grow food,
but we're also going to grow students.
And through the art and science of growing food
using indoor technology,
we can accomplish reading,
writing,
math,
science,
amazing things,
and some incredible health outcomes.
(18:09):
That's my vision.
And so how is this transferring to other classrooms,
to other schools,
to other countries?
What does that even look like?
When I designed the curriculum,
look,
I didn't want to be a brick on the pile.
So we did whole school curriculum.
And it is the art and science of growing vegetables
aligned to everyday instruction in literacy,
(18:31):
in math.
In science,
in social studies,
in technology,
in health and wellness.
So I have schools who are using our curriculum day
in and day out,
five,
six periods a day.
But if you just want to do math,
I've got it coded to math.
If you just want to do literacy,
I've got literacy.
Heck,
if you want to grow plants after school or in an
(18:51):
after school program,
we've got that too.
But I believe in abundance.
And if you give teachers an abundance.
All of it aligned to what principles are being
held accountable to because principals still are the
ultimate decision makers in schools.
And if you're giving them that tool,
my program has gone or the program has gone from
(19:13):
being,
you know,
basically teacher champion to principal and
superintendent champion.
We have principals who are using the program with
struggling teachers because it models scoped and
sequenced pedagogy.
It models effective evaluation.
You know,
our curriculum is used by the State University of
New York to teach teachers.
You know,
it was about reading,
writing,
(19:33):
math,
and how you take what you're doing in class with
this amazing object and life in front of you and
quantify it and talk about it and get data around
it and present about it.
And those are the skills that kids need to thrive
in life,
first and foremost,
in school,
most importantly,
from the principal's perspective,
and,
you know,
overall.
So it's just been a home run.
(19:55):
I was wondering if some of this work was actually
embedded in teacher training programs.
So is that happening in New York in the teacher
training programs or is it after?
Is it pre-service or in service?
It is now both.
Believe it or not,
you're going to love this.
In fact,
I'll be the first.
Well,
not the first.
My wife was the first to know.
But we are partnering,
(20:16):
believe it or not.
With the Culinary Institute of America to create
industry-wide certifications,
work certifications,
credit recovery programs for high school kids,
undergraduate and graduate credit.
We are partnering with SITE,
which is one of the largest in-person and online
teacher and administrative certifying institutions in
the country.
(20:37):
And they're looking at the way we designed pedagogy
and the way we treat teachers as a model for
professional instruction.
So showing up is powerful.
Listening is powerful.
Being collegial is powerful.
But most importantly,
being effective is powerful.
(20:58):
And also,
did you see the outcomes?
You know,
it's really cool to have walk into classrooms in
the middle of Detroit and see gardens,
thriving gardens when it's 10 degrees outside.
You know,
so it's been an amazing thing.
So I just have to ask,
I'm guessing that there are systems,
places that you go that actively resist this kind
(21:20):
of work.
Well,
listen,
people have actively resisted me my whole life.
So I'm used to that.
But I also believe in the power of positivity.
I'm not here to push anything on anybody.
We get more inquiries than we know how to respond
to,
quite frankly.
And that's been on a learning curve,
too.
(21:41):
You can't make everybody happy.
I'm not going to go where I'm not wanted.
But there are plenty of places that want us.
And to think that we've gone from one school and
one cohort of children,
our program now serves 325,
000 students daily.
We've trained over 11,
000 teachers.
(22:02):
We're celebrating our 1,
000th school.
I've got thousands of schools now in Europe.
I've got incredible networks of schools here in the
UAE,
which is remarkable.
You know,
the things that I wanted to do in the South Bronx
for kids of poverty that people wouldn't let me do
then wound up being replicated and got full buy-in.
Here we have the top 20 schools in the world here
(22:24):
in the UAE,
which was based on a model that I wanted when I
met you for children of poverty in the South
Bronx.
Can you tell me a little bit about that now and
in practice what's happening?
So in practice,
what is happening is If I were to tell you that
we have a program with a one-time cost of
(22:44):
approximately $6,
500 for technology that you need,
all the professional development that you need,
all the materials that you need,
and it's a one-time cost for a whole school of $
6,
500 that will transform test scores,
pedagogy,
teacher satisfaction,
and student health outcomes.
You'd think I wasn't growing edible plants,
(23:04):
but maybe something else that we should be talking
about in the great state of California.
But 1,
000 schools later,
countless studies later,
third-party data later,
here we are.
We've done it.
And what has been the trick?
The trick has been,
number one,
for far too long,
too many nonprofits have gotten fat and flush off
the dysfunction of communities like mine.
(23:28):
We've basically become our own non-profits,
but basically we've turned our school into a place
where not-for-profits are not welcome,
but you have to add value instead of extracting
value from us to get your achievement and to get
your mission done.
And what have we done?
We've empowered the people who are most important,
(23:48):
parents and teachers.
And when you have a program that is
teacher-friendly,
principal-approved,
and gets parents involved,
Wow,
that's game-changing.
And then when you demonetize it,
you know,
we had huge offers on the curriculum.
Let me tell you,
you know,
numbers like athlete numbers,
you know,
we could have been rich,
(24:09):
but that would have really prevented the communities
that needed it most from getting into it because
they want to buy it and resell it.
So what we learned to do,
we learned to democratize it.
And then we took professional development.
And what did we find out?
We found out that teachers love professional
development.
They just don't want to be held captive after
school with boring presentations when they need to
(24:29):
be home with their own children.
And what did the data show us?
The data showed us that if we put it online 24
hours a day and made it open access,
that teachers would go there.
And they do.
And you know when they go?
Between the hours of 9 o'clock and 6 o'clock in
the morning.
Everything that we do is data-driven.
Certainly,
principal-approved,
because at the end of the day,
(24:51):
you know,
teachers are accountable to principals.
So if you have something that a principal likes and
teachers want to get involved with it,
you're going to win.
And it's teacher-tested.
And we keep finding new and improved ways to
deliver it and get better at it.
We're using brand new technology as well,
which is absolutely amazing,
the Babylon Microfarm,
which,
you know,
if you go to the Green Bronx Machine website and
(25:12):
just go look at STEM Garden,
you know,
we've gone from tower gardens,
you know,
which are really easy and really effective to use,
to 21st century technology.
I'm here putting them on the top floors of
corporate America.
I'm putting them on cruise ships.
You know,
I'm putting them in some of the most
state-of-the-art venues you can imagine.
And that's all about one thing (25:28):
Hospitality.
We're training young people to maintain them,
to service them,
to install them.
And I couldn't be more excited.
I'm hoping you could share some actual statistics
with us or some of the science behind what you're
doing.
I know people,
they hear a story and they hear your excitement,
(25:50):
but they also want to say,
you know,
show me.
What's your evidence?
What's your evidence?
Show me the data.
Okay,
so.
I'm going to the Green Bronx Machine 2024 impact
report,
which is right on the Green Bronx Machine website.
And,
you know,
some of the things that we've been able to do is
move children in terms of basic competencies around
(26:11):
writing letters,
literacy skills.
Move children from being able to identify five parts
of a letter in nine weeks from 8% who could do
it before to 88% who could do it after.
Percentage of children to understand the difference
between pie charts,
bar graphs,
and line graphs before nine weeks is 18%,
(26:33):
after 78%.
The percentage of children who are able to identify
the correct units of measurements and standards of
measurements has gone from 28% to 82%.
Let's talk about some health outcomes.
Children who grow it will eat it.
And percent of students who talk about healthy
eating habits with their families,
before it was around 4% in communities like mine,
(26:55):
it is now close to 50% because we have enough
food to send home and bring grandparents in.
Percent of students who now understand understand the
relationship between fresh fruits,
vegetables,
diabetes,
heart disease,
and health outcomes.
Before it was 12%,
now it's 50%.
Percent of students who now know how to define and
prepare a delicious and nutritious meal.
(27:19):
Before it was 9%,
it's now 83%.
Now I'm going to give you some teacher outcomes
based on last year's cohort of 325,
000 participating students and 11,
000 teachers.
Behavioral outcomes.
Before the program,
as many as 93% of all participating students ate
zero or one serving of fruits and vegetables daily.
(27:39):
And in all cases,
in every single school,
less than 5% of total population ate five or more
complete servings.
After nine weeks,
100% of the participating students reported increased
consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.
And that's good for local economies.
90% of participating students reported increased
consumption by more than two servings.
(28:01):
And 50% reported eating twice as many fruits and
vegetables daily.
And,
you know,
I want to shout out the USDA program on the fresh
fruit and vegetable program,
because when you replace packaged foods with fresh
foods,
it really makes a difference.
I'm going to give you some teachers.
satisfaction because happy teachers lead to happier
kids.
And that's one thing we learned.
(28:23):
We started doing farmer's markets and the kids took
the profits to buy gifts for teachers so they'd be
less grumpy.
That was really a telltale sign for me.
And what do teachers report?
Teachers report that 59% of all students improve
their collaboration skills.
70 cent.
Of them claimed this was a positive experience for
their students and their families.
(28:44):
94% of the students who did the program said they
would do it again tomorrow.
That's great.
94% said the program provides skills or knowledge
and/ or experiences that students would have
otherwise not have had.
Who the hell would farm indoors in the middle of
the South Bronx in January?
Not too many people.
97% said the program enhanced knowledge or a skill
(29:04):
set they would use as a teacher.
And 100% of the teachers who use the program
recommend the program to a colleague.
I mean,
I can go on and on and on.
I could give you a ton of stuff,
but those are real.
That's some of the data.
You know,
the test scores are through the roof.
You know,
some of my initial cohort,
not of the older kids,
but since I started working with elementary school
(29:25):
kids,
you know,
I've gotten kids into some of the best private
high schools and best colleges in the nation.
I have kids going to medical school.
Immigrant kids whose parents are making $10 an
hour,
neither of which graduated high school or medical
school with the magic F word,
free.
Then we moved on to add value products.
You know,
we've got green Bronx machine pickles.
(29:45):
We've got green Bronx machine hot sauce.
We've got pesto.
Our pesto is the best.
I've got kids,
you know.
Making kimchi and learning about,
you know,
food science,
fermentation.
I have one child who's actively trying to name the
two billion bacteria that are living in her
stomach.
That list is getting really long.
It's amazing how many names there are,
but these are kind of the fun things that we're
doing.
You know,
(30:05):
we brought kids to the White House,
not once,
not twice,
but three times.
You know,
I put kids on the stage of the World Business
Forum.
We're doing things that have never been done before,
and we're going to keep doing it.
You know,
odds are they'll bury me and put me in the
schoolyard.
I like to say I'm just getting started.
I'm building an army and I'm building an army of
(30:26):
the next social and environmental justice warriors,
children who understand that food justice is racial
justice and who has access to what,
where,
when and how and what price determines everything.
And it starts with food,
but then it transfers into democracy.
And that's awesome.
So case in point,
we're seeing a proliferation of fast food come to
(30:48):
communities like mine in ways that are really
driving real estate value and poor health outcomes.
But in very insidious ways.
We got a new Wendy's and the Wendy's is like the
Taj Mahal of Wendy's.
It's like the glowing Wendy's in the hood with a
playground and big lights.
And wow,
you can't help but think this is a wonderful place
to be.
(31:09):
They even put in a little playground,
not a big one,
but a little one.
But when my children,
when they found out that Wendy's was not paying
one penny more a pound to the farmers in Florida,
they were really upset.
30 years ago when kids told me,
you know,
they're upset,
I'm like,
well,
get over it.
But,
you know,
now they're upset.
So I'm like,
what are we going to do?
You know,
(31:29):
and they're like,
let's do something.
So they started writing letters.
They organized the boycott and those letters were
well written.
And I was able to give feedback on how to move
those letters to the proximal zone of development
for competency and writing skills.
And what we're doing in certain schools is actually
creating a legitimate market where those impoverished
(31:49):
communities can use the benefits they have to
purchase the food that they want from school.
And the kids get to keep the money,
which is awesome.
Or the money goes back into the school to do other
things for kids.
So it's a really strong,
viable economic model.
And I couldn't be more proud of the work that we
are doing collectively.
And let me be clear,
(32:09):
it's not just me.
I stand on the shoulder and have the support of
giants.
You know,
this podcast is called Educating to be Human,
right?
And this season is really about thinking about who
controls what we learn,
how we learn,
how embodied learning is what really moves us
(32:31):
forward.
And the question I wanted to ask you is,
you know,
what have the kids,
the students taught me about what it means to
learn and how to be human?
What the children have taught me is to be kinder
and to be gentler.
(32:51):
Sometimes you do that in very forceful ways,
but you don't have to be the loudest voice in the
room all the time.
And,
you know,
you know me as being,
I think,
a forceful person,
a loud person,
you know,
a people person.
I'm certainly not one to back down.
But,
you know,
I've learned what children have taught me (33:07):
that
lots of times the answers can come from stillness
and silence,
and that lived experience matters.
And quite frankly,
what I've really learned from them is the people
who need the most love now more than ever tend to
(33:28):
ask for it in the most unloving ways.
We can meet them where they're at by being kind
and being patient.
Love is the answer.
You know,
I'm going to sound hokey,
but it really-you know,
I used to think it was this kind of pedigree.
Oh,
we need to do this in school.
You know,
no one is going to; it's not about money.
And I really want to share that with everybody
(33:51):
who's listening,
particularly in these very fractured times.
Look,
some of the things that we're seeing going on in
this country to me are wholly unacceptable.
So let me be clear.
And I'm not exactly thrilled with the president
administration and I'll leave it at that.
But.
You know,
we've got to move beyond this notion of non-profit
our way into prosperity and really meeting children
(34:15):
with the one thing that separates us from a lot
of other animals; and that's love.
And no one is going to go broke giving love.
And what I've learned in the process,
particularly from the little kids who will hug on
you till there's no end in sight,
is that,
you know,
sometimes the answer is just love.
(34:35):
And you don't need to have the answer each and
every day.
But if you show up and you're consistent,
amazing things happen.
And what does the data tell us?
The data tells us that children who have access to
one kind,
caring adult will succeed in life.
So,
you know,
I urge all of you to be that one kind,
(34:56):
caring adult for one more child,
to be a little kinder to yourself,
to be a little kinder to the planet.
Thank you for joining us today,
Stephen.
Is there anything more that you'd like to leave
with our listeners?
One thing I would love everyone to do is please go
to check out our documentary,
and it's called Generation Growth.
It has swept every film festival hearts and minds
(35:18):
across the country,
and it's available at the website www.
generationgrowthfilm.
com.
Again,
www.
generationgrowthfilm.
com.
We could have sold the film for a huge sum of
money,
but instead we invested in a website with tons of
resources for teachers to share that are free.
So get out there,
(35:38):
see the film,
be inspired,
and grow something greater.
And send a thank you note to Lisa for inviting me.
So good to see you.
Today's conversation with Stephen Ritz reminds us
that learning doesn't just happen behind a desk.
It happens in gardens and kitchens and in
communities.
And Stephen's work with the Green Bronx Machine
(36:01):
shows what's possible when education is rooted in
care,
relevance,
and hands-on experience.
From improving academic outcomes to health and even
community outcomes,
to sparking joy and purpose in students'lives,
his approach reimagines what learning is,
(36:22):
especially for those who've been underserved and
often overlooked.
So as we rethink education for the future,
his message is clear.
Start local.
Grow something meaningful and never underestimate the
power of one person and one garden to transform a
community.
(36:43):
Thanks for listening,
and we'll see you next time.