Green Bronx Machine

Thanks for visiting our campaign! My name is Stephen Ritz  and I'm the Founder of Green Bronx Machine - a volunteer lead for-purpose organization with 501(c)3 status based in the South Bronx. We believe that healthy students are at the heart of healthy schools and healthy schools are at the heart of resillient communities. To date, we have a documented history of changing lives and destinies for students and communities. Now we want to take it one step further and redefine how children live, learn and earn and are building the FIRST National Health, Wellness  & Learning Center at PS 55 in the South Bronx.

We are converting a formerly under-utilized library, four stories up, in a 100+ year old building into the classroom of the future! A place where students can dream and work towards a better future by day and where parents and community stakeholders can develop 21st Century workforce development skills in the evening. In the process, we will be generating 100 bags of student grown vegetables, 52 weeks a year in a community with limited means and limited access to healthy fresh food! This 1,350 square foot classroom will become the epicenter of the entire school community and drive 21st Century learning across all content areas. 

Our goal is to recondition and update the room physically and then fill it with teacher workstations, student research center, interactive media center, mobile teaching kitchen, propagation area, seedling incubator, state of the art Tower Garden   and much more. We have to pay union contractors, engineers, plumbers, electricians and material costs in addition to filing fees. The principal has committed teachers to staff the facility and grow something greater! Now we need your support to make this dream a reality. Together, we can change lives for this and future generations! Help us change lives so that together, we can all prosper! Si se puede!

Sincerely,
Stephen Ritz

Learn more at
www.greenbronxmachine.org 
www.facebook.com/green.BX.machine
@greenBXmachine
2015 Standing Ovation TEDx Talk