Youth environment prize winner feeds Richmond, employs neighbors

By Maureen Nandini Mitra
From Public Press news partner Earth Island Journal
 
Tania Pulido was a troubled teen back in high school. Her teachers labeled her an “at-risk” youth.
 
But there was something about her that drew people. A local Richmond nonprofit called Urban Tilth, that works to build healthy and just food systems in communities, noticed this trait in her and figured that she had leadership potential. So they hired Pulido, right after high school two years ago, as a site coordinator for the neglected Berryland garden on the Richmond Greenway.
 
Having no gardening experience, Pulido began with basic watering and weeding as  the group taught her about community organizing and urban agriculture. Today Pulido is a certified permaculturalist who teaches hundreds of other youth in her community about urban agriculture.
 
In a city plagued by high crime, industrial pollution and malnutrition, Pulido has helped Berryland has become more than just a place to grow food. Local youth can learn about urban agriculture and crucial global issues — like climate change and environmental racism.
 
Last summer Pulido employed 25 local youth through a summer apprenticeship program teaching basic gardening. Food from the garden helps feed local families and the teens themselves. She is now working to open a free organic food stand.
 
Pulido is also involved a campaign against the local Chevron oil refinery. She has worked with and trained more than 100 youth in Richmond and has built a core of 20 youth leaders. She also organized dozens of local events on the Greenway — a feat for a teen working in a community with many “troubled” youth (last summer, the brother of one of her apprentices was shot and killed just two blocks from Berryland garden).
 
This work earned the 21-year-oldPulido the prestigious 2011 Brower Youth Award this week from Earth Island Institute. Pulido is one of seven winners chosen from nearlyc 100 candidates from across the country. Judges included author and eco-activist Paul Hawken, global human rights activist Vandana Shiva and founder of Newman’s Own Organics Nell Newman.
 
The other six awardees are between the ages of 15 and 21, and include fellow urban farmers and activists, a surfer turned environmental educator and youth fighting to protect endangered species.
 
Pulido said she would use the prize money from the award to help build community pride. “Oftentimes, Richmond is portrayed negatively in the media,” she said. “I would use new resources to buy video equipment to better highlight the positive projects and activities in my community.”
 
Other prize recipients:
  • Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, 15 and 16, of Michigan, who got the Girl Scouts to limit destructive palm oil in their iconic cookies, and have been covered by The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC and many others
  • Victor Davila, 17, of New York, who is teaching environmental and health education through skateboarding
  • Alexander Epstein, 20, of Pennsylvania, for empowering communities in New Orleans and Philadelphia to develop sustainably from the ground up
  • Junior Walk, 21, of West Virginia, for challenging the coal industry in his community
  • Kyle Thiermann, 21, of California, whose surf videos have created millions of dollars in environmentally responsible investments
 
The awards ceremony was Wednesday at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. More information about all of the 2011 Award recipients, including biographies, project summaries, videos and photographs is available at www.broweryouthawards.org.

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