About the Vision
Project EATS’ mission is for everyone to have the opportunity - regardless of income - to live healthily and to thrive. To achieve our mission, we join with residents and other stakeholders in neighborhoods to work as both a catalyst and support in creating community-based enterprises that grow and distribute food and programs that inspire, engage, cultivate understanding and strengthen ties between neighbors. The end goal is to increase the well-being of individuals and to improve the social, economic, and cultural viability of their communities.
Through our Enterprise Program, we work with residents and other neighborhood stakeholders to create a network of a community-based small plot, high-yield farms that naturally grow and distribute fresh produce for locals and non-locals. Our small-scale manufacturing operations produce food-based and agricultural products. These enterprises provide youth and adult residents with skills, experience, employment and careers, and support aspiring entrepreneurs. Through our Community Programs, we provide a range of activities and opportunities that includes the integration and creation of art as a mode of communication, action, and reflection in which individuals and groups of residents engage. We also provide food and wellness-oriented workshops, community meals and events, and “food-as-medicine” programs to support people’s efforts to live healthier lives.
Project EATS is a New York City-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization that serves all members of the community regardless of age, race, color, creed, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status under applicable laws.
I don't know what I would like to be yet, but Project EATS helped me to realize that I love to work with people and be close to the community.
-- Project EATS Youth Fellow, Summer 2014
Meet the Founder
*/LINDA GOODE BRYANT is an artist and founder of Project EATS, a “living installation” of neighborhood-based farms that uses art, urban agriculture, partnerships, and social enterprise to sustainably produce and equitably distribute fresh and nutritious food in communities across New York City. Her decades of art-based activism began with her founding of Just Above Midtown gallery (JAM) which was a self-described laboratory for African-American and artists of color from 1974–1986. JAM’s explicit purpose was to be “in but not of the art world” offering early—and often unique—opportunities to artists to experiment and create freely, away from art market pressures. After closing JAM, Linda dedicated herself to filmmaking, directing the Peabody award-winning documentary Flag Wars (2003), an intimate portrait of a community in flux that explores the tensions between preservation and gentrification. Over her nearly 50-year career, Linda has and continues to advocate for a connection to “our innate ability to use what we have to create what we need”. With Project EATS, Linda has operated 20 farms on nearly 5 acres of land across New York and has recently launched a plant-based prepared food line to further increase the accessibility and consumption of fresh and healthy food across the city. Just as JAM came about through a determination to create a needed space for artists, Linda’s current practice through Project EATS embraces new kinds of collaboration and creativity toward a better future.