Queens' Sky Farm LIC offers free produce to kids in need

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) -- An urban oasis in Queens is giving back to the community it serves.

Sky Farm LIC is a haven on the roof of a building on Northern Boulevard in Long Island City run by the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens.

The farm has been around for 13 years and was previously owned by Brooklyn Grange. The nonprofit took it over last year after it had been laying fallow for 3 years. 

The farm officially opened in the fall but renovations were not completed until this spring.

In May- Variety began its mission- bringing kids from the community up to learn about sustainability.

“We’ve already brought 500 kids up here already who’ve had a chance to get in the dirt and learn about healthy eating and healthy growing. Where their food comes from,” said Costa Constantinides, CEO of Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens.

Everything that is cultivated is given away either to the kids who visit- or to families in the community. 

“We are now producing about a 150 pounds of food a week. Most of the kids we serve are in an environmental justice neighborhood. West of 21st Street there’s one supermarket, they don’t have access to healthy green food so we’re giving it away,” said Constantinides.

Sky Farm says 77 percent of the kids it helps feed live below the poverty line. 

“We all have a right to dignified healthy food that’s grown in a responsible way and the fact that they get to contribute to that just feels like we’re delivering something to them something they should have in the first place,” said farm manager Alexa Curnette.

Sky Farm is being funded by a grant from New York Power Authority and Hydro Quebec.