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Last updated on October 16, 2007

The Sylvia Center's mission is to improve the lives of at-risk children by giving them the opportunity to connect with nature and learn about nutritious and healthy eating through joyful hands-on experiences.

Description:
The Sylvia Center is a not-for-profit organization with programs at both Katchkie Farm, a 60-acre farm in Columbia County, NY, and in the catering kitchens of Great Performances in New York City. The Sylvia Center brings the farm experience into the lives of children in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Through hands-on activities children learn about freshly grown food--its flavors, textures, seasons--and how it is farmed. The children plant, harvest, and taste. The curriculum demonstrates nutritional principles in a child-friendly and enticing fashion. The bounty of our working farm and the creativity of our culinary professionals impart to the children a message of appreciation for good food and healthfulness.
The kitchen lessons at Great Performances in NYC provide a hands-on cooking experience that incorporates NYS DOE education standards for math and science. These lessons teach healthy snacking and portion sizes in a kid-friendly, interactive manner and most importantly is fun! Children will be given recipes to bring home and share with their parents.

History:
Founded in 2006, the Sylvia Center in its first year has imparted a lesson about nutritious and healthy eating by bringing a joyful hands-on farm experience into the lives of at-risk children, in the Hudson Valley and New York City. In a time of health crisis for America’s children—rates of obesity, diabetes, asthma growing at alarming rates--and the disappearance of home-cooked healthy meals, The Sylvia Center has reconnected children and their families to real foods and real flavors and the joy that comes from cultivating the land. In addition to seedlings, the children take home awareness about food, healthfulness, and self.

Contact people:

Susan Ball, Executive Director, (212) 727-6097, (email) Asya Ollis, (212) 727-2424, (email)

Office fax number: (212) 727-2820

Address:

304 Hudson St., 2nd Floor New York, NY 10013 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.thesylviacenter.org

Directions:

Take the C or E train to Spring. Walk two blocks West to Hudson, turn right to 304 Hudson, between Spring and Van Dam.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Spring St. on the C/E line,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5   Nearest Bus Stop: Hudson between Spring and Van Dam/M20, 0 minute walk

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