New York Botanical Garden launches new Edible Academy complex

The New York Botanical Garden’s Edible Academy — an agricultural education platform providing hands-on activities and interactive programs for children in the Bronx and Greater New York City area — will celebrate the groundbreaking of their new building complex Thursday, October 27. The $28 million facility, which will be completed in the Spring of 2018, will double the number of on-site learners to 100,000 annually in at attempt to expand the group’s garden-based educational programs.

Along with the latest developments — the building’s new display gardens, teaching greenhouse and terraced amphitheater — programming will be more thorough than ever before, offering an increased diversity of K-8 school programs, new after school programs for middle and high school students, a new teen internship program, as well as one-day gardening workshops and week-long institutes for teachers, said James Boyer of the New York Botanical Garden via email.

“The Edible Academy complex will offer a wide range of real-life connections to the food we grow, our health and nutrition choices, the technologies that will play a crucial in our society, and importance of teamwork and community to accomplish projects,” said Boyer. “The Garden has always worked in many of these areas, but with limited facilities, our reach was much narrower.”

To sign up for classes, go to nybg.org