Kids peer into a hole in the wall of a barn.Photo: Marc Fader of City Limits
The chartered bus pulls up to the 100-acre Hudson Valley farm, after a two-hour drive from Harlem, and stops alongside a row of crates filled with red and yellow onions. Outside the bus, sprawling green fields have come into view. “Oh my God. That’s a barn,” declares a young girl on the bus, her gaze fixed on the two-story building that has appeared in the distance. “I’ve never been in a barn.”
The 52 people on the bus are employees and patrons of seven New York City food pantries. They have come to J. Glebocki Farms to see where local produce grows. During their tour, the farmer, John Glebocki, leads them through a prep house where workers busily scrub dirt off carrots. Later, they ride through the fields in wagons, past rows of onions, potatoes, and sunflowers, stopping every so often for a closer look at the soil and the plants.
“Mom, I took this from the dirt!” squeals Brianna Scavellaio-Lapin, the seven-year-old daughter of one of the trip’s participants and food pantry patrons, as she raises the dirt-covered ca... Read more
