;)
Your Visit
In-person field trips run 120 minutes and are available during the spring, summer, and fall months.
Virtual field trips run 30-45 minutes and are available throughout the school year, with a brief hiatus during winter.
Bring lessons from the Urban Farm to your classroom! Pre-visit activities linked below require minimal materials and are designed to supplement the scheduled field trips. However, most activities can be used on their own in the class or at home!
Learning doesn’t stop when your students leave the Urban Farm! Extend the fun with one of our post-visit activities! Post-visit activities linked below require minimal materials and are designed to supplement the scheduled field trips. However, these activities can be used on their own in the class or at home!
Where To Meet
Navigate to the Urban Farm using the address 11 Wards Meadow Loop, New York, NY 10035. Download our directions for suggested travel routes, whether you’re driving, biking, walking, or using public transportation.
In-person field trips run 120 minutes and are available during the spring, summer, and fall months.
Virtual field trips run 30-45 minutes and are available throughout the school year, with a brief hiatus during winter.
Bring lessons from the Urban Farm to your classroom! Pre-visit activities linked below require minimal materials and are designed to supplement the scheduled field trips. However, most activities can be used on their own in the class or at home!
Learning doesn’t stop when your students leave the Urban Farm! Extend the fun with one of our post-visit activities! Post-visit activities linked below require minimal materials and are designed to supplement the scheduled field trips. However, these activities can be used on their own in the class or at home!
Where To Meet
Navigate to the Urban Farm using the address 11 Wards Meadow Loop, New York, NY 10035. Download our directions for suggested travel routes, whether you’re driving, biking, walking, or using public transportation.
Learn More
For over a decade, the Randall’s Island Park Alliance’s Urban Farm has encouraged visitors to explore sustainable agriculture and vibrant ecosystems in a space designed for teaching and learning.
The Urban Farm Edible Education Program offers a formal opportunity for local K–12 students, prioritizing public schools in neighboring East Harlem and the South Bronx, to engage in topics not often addressed in school: their food, how it is grown, and how it contributes to their health and well-being, as well as to their communities and the greater food system.
Our experienced team of Urban Farmers and Educators guide students through age-appropriate hands-on classes focused on the environment, planting, composting, and cooking.
Through these classes, students deepen their understanding around topics like soil biodiversity, plant anatomy, urban ecosystems, and healthy eating.
Lessons adapt to seasonal changes, and classes can be tailored to the needs of teachers. All classes are developed to align with what students are learning in the classroom and adhere to New York State Scope and Sequence along with Common Core Standards.
The Randall’s Island Park Alliance is proud to offer free education programs, and greatly appreciates donations to help continue to make these events possible.
;)
Visits At A Glance
Farming
To deepen their appreciation of agricultural science, students will step into the role of a farmer and assist in the care of the Urban Farm while learning about the space’s sustainable features and ecological and community impacts. While farming, students will engage in seasonally relevant activities such as transplanting seedlings, direct seeding, mulching beds, or harvesting crops. Students in High School and above may also participate in integrated pest management practices. After farming with us, students will be more rooted in the understanding that farming requires knowledge of how best to care for not only our crops but the soil and a farm’s ecosystem, too!
Composting
Composting is an essential process in redirecting waste from pollutant-producing landfills and improving the quality of community health. Compost can reduce the waste we throw away, minimize stormwater runoff when used as mulch around the city, and reintroduce vital nutrients into garden beds or growing spaces, including here on the Urban Farm! Students will explore the ins and outs of composting, learning along the way about the necessary ingredients and the many beneficial organisms that make a healthy batch of compost.
Seasonal Sampling
With over 200 crop varieties grown on site throughout a season, the Urban Farm is a bountiful oasis to be savored! Guided by our Farmers, students will take a multisensory tour of the Urban Farm. They will observe fruits and vegetables in the field and discover how they grow and taste. Students might also practice their culinary skills in the Urban Farm’s Outdoor Kitchen! Based on seasonal availability, students will use age-appropriate tools to create simple, vegetable-forward dishes like stir-fries and salads while examining individual ingredients and their properties.
F.A.Q.
In-person field trips are during the fall (the end of September through October) and the spring (the middle of April through June) of each school year. We also offer visits to summer groups in July and August. Please visit our RIPA Kids Summer Camp Page for more information on how to bring your summer camp group for multiple visits to our Summer Camp Program.
Due to the nature and location of our programming, we prioritize serving our neighbors in East Harlem and South Bronx Public Schools. Requests from public schools outside of these neighborhoods are our following priority. However, if you have a group that serves participants outside the above scope, please contact Ashley Whited, our Education Coordinator, regarding availability or submit an inquiry form for our volunteer program!
The Urban Farm has no farm animals as of the 2023 growing season. If you visited the farm in the past, you may have met our beloved farm chickens. The Farm team is working hard to improve the infrastructure to bring back our chickens. Stay tuned to this page for updates. In the meantime, we encourage farm visitors to keep an eye out for other smaller animals (like birds, pollinators, and other wildlife) among us who call the farm home.
The Urban Farm grows over 3,500lbs of food annually, donating over 60% of the food produced to the LSA Food Pantry in East Harlem. Much of the remaining harvest goes to the Edible Education programs. The public can sample the farm’s produce at free cooking workshops throughout the season or at free farm stands at one of RIPA’s major festivals. Check the events calendar for a chance to take home some vegetables grown on the Urban Farm.
Students should be ready to explore, which might mean getting a little dirty! Currently, our program is entirely outdoors, meaning students should wear comfortable clothing and footwear that can get soiled and is appropriate for the forecasted weather.
We encourage you to check out our pre-visit lessons and activities for students, at the top of this page, that can be done in the classroom before your field trip for an optimal learning experience!
Edible Education Field Trips
In a 2-hour visit, students get a broad introduction to the farm by rotating through activities that engage their fives senses in learning. They explore the diversity of fruits and vegetables available on the farm during a “walking, talking, tasting tour,” and prepare a simple farm-fresh dish with their harvest. They also get their hands dirty, learning about compost and the important role worms play in growing our food. Along the way, students explore the relationships of vegetables within different families of crops, plant anatomy, pollination, and the relationships of animals to plants within the ecology of the farm.
In this 30–45-minute experience, students participate in a live virtual tour of the Urban Farm. During the tour, Farmers and Educators will introduce students to a range of topics while engaging in a Q & A along the way. Students will learn about composting and discover the fruits and vegetables growing in our urban environment. Tours can be tailored to all ages and designed to align with the desired focus of the teacher. Groups are also invited to submit post-trip questions for our Farmers and Educators to answer in a personalized video!
Get Involved
Your work will help us keep Randall’s Island Park a vibrant and wonderful place for all New Yorkers! Click to learn more about how you can help.
We are looking for candidates who are excited about Randall’s Island Park Alliance (RIPA) and would enjoy working in a park!