Meet Birch!

Hi, I'm Birch!

I'm a City High School sophomore and I've been lucky enough to work at MAP. I started here in the summer of 2015. I got lucky at a seed wasp and last-minute I was accepted into the program. Now, I'm originally from a small town called Binghamton, NY, but I've truly growing in Buffalo; MAP has been such a monumental part of it. My family is very big on food. We have a history of disease that my parents believe can be change if we eat right. This is the basis of my food activism. That activism, in conjunction with MAP has allowed me to go from a know-it-all 13 year old novice to a spoken (if a bit sarcastic) 15 year old activist. I have such a great time learning about our food system from the dirt up. I prefer to work in the farm (despite compost turning) because it's so rewarding to see my effort literally blossom before my eyes.

Recently I've become interested in the school to prison pipeline.  I hope to open a juvenile correctional facility pilot. It'll be based on education and rehabilitation through agriculture. My goal is to make it inclusive as possible and eventually inspire teenagers who would have otherwise been forgotten about by our penal system to take the changes given to them in life and improve the communities they come from. Race and equity work is very relevant right now and I hope to be a part of the solution in the future.

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