Learning a fresh food future with Stephen Ritz

Stephen is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning educator, author of best-selling book, The Power Of A Plant and Founder of Green Bronx Machine. Known as America's favorite teacher, Stephen is responsible for creating the first edible classroom in the world. He and his students have grown more than 100,000 pounds of vegetables in the South Bronx, have been celebrated at the Obama White House three times, have been featured on the cover of TIME for KIDS and are the subject of a new, full-feature documentary, Generation Growth. Stephen was just awarded the 2020 Change-Maker Award by NYC Food Policy Center for his work, advocacy and impact in public schools across NYC and America! To date, Stephen’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, TNT, Disney, NPR, PBS, Univision, Upworthy and in many international media outlets. His TEDx Manhattan Talk boasts over 975,000 views – ranked in the Top 10 Food / Education TED Talks of all time and is used for teacher training / workforce development globally. Stephen is an Office Depot featured teacher – Teachers Change Lives! In 2013, the United States Department of State and New York Foreign Press Corps toured representatives from 40 countries across Stephen’s worksites and classrooms. Dedicated to harvesting hope and cultivating minds, Stephen dreams of opening a nationally replicable Career Technical Education public school rooted in urban agriculture, green, and sustainable initiatives. Stephen recently lost more than 100 pounds by modeling positive behavior and eating what he and his students grow in school. Stephen believes that together, via collaboration, coalition and get to yes solutions, we can all prosper!