Joel Singh and Ayan Sajid

Abstract:

In this presentation, we worked at Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in Downtown Albany, where we worked with Dr. Scott Kellogg as well as several local youth volunteers from the community. Over summer Ayan, several youth volunteers who worked at Radix and I, worked on maintaining gardens and collecting food scraps from the locals and the community food pantry to help educate the locals in the Albany area how people in an urban environment are able to eat and get locally grown organic food in an environment where getting healthy foods isn’t easy or affordable for certain local communities due to a variety of factors like their race, class, access, equity, and fairness. We also educated the youth volunteers about how urban ecosystems can be affected due to a variety of factors such as climate, soils, watersheds, waste cycles, and biodiversity. Each of these factors were discussed at Radix in brief detail as well as sharing our college experiences in ecology and environmental science to several youth volunteers who were in high school and interested in environmental science or studies.