CPU Greenhouses Highlighted in Mélange Magazine
A recent piece in Mélange Publishing’s Accessibility for All highlights the greenhouses on Staten Island and the people with disabilities who plant, tend, and harvest bumper crops of a variety of vegetables. Enjoy an excerpt below and click the link to keep enjoying the blossoming piece.
What does it mean to plant roots? For the people with intellectual and developmental disabilities supported by CP Unlimited (CPU), it means literally putting vegetables into soil while simultaneously grounding their work to an expansive vision of inclusivity, independence, and purpose.
On Staten Island at the organization’s Cora Hoffman Center on the aptly named Forest Avenue, two plexiglass greenhouses sit behind a metal fence, a warm respite from any outside coldness. They are stocked- depending on the season- with peppers, cabbage, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, herbs, beets, and more. No matter the weather, it is always balmy and close to harvest time in the greenhouses.
Erected in 2021 in partnership with the non-profit Smile Farms to help provide meaningful employment, vocational, and educational opportunities for people with disabilities in agriculture and hospitality, it is one of 10 campuses across New York City and Long Island. Like what we teach our children: it is what is on the inside that counts; while flora is growing, so is hope. The greenhouses support two full-time workers with disabilities who enjoy the full process of the planting process. “I love the greenhouses,” says CPU’s James Cuomo, who has worked with Smile Farms for more than two years.
