Yonnette Fleming facts for kids

Yonnette Fleming was born in 1968. She is an American urban farmer and a community earth steward. An urban farmer grows food in a city, and an earth steward helps take care of the environment. Yonnette Fleming lives in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

Her work is an important part of the environmental movement. She focuses on creating community gardens in cities. She also works to support Black farmers.

Early Life and Roots

Yonnette Fleming was born in Guyana, a country in South America. Her family worked closely with local communities there. They grew many different crops, like coconuts, sugar, and rice.

In 1983, when she was about 15 years old, Yonnette moved to New York. She came from Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana.

Making a Difference: Her Career

Starting in Community Gardens

In 2003, Yonnette Fleming joined the Hattie Carthan Community Garden. This garden is in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. At that time, she was working a job on Wall Street.

By 2008, she decided to leave her Wall Street job. She wanted to spend all her time helping her community. She focused on making sure people had good food and strong neighborhoods.

Creating a Farmer's Market

In 2009, Yonnette worked hard to create something new. She started the Hattie Carthan Community Farmer’s Market. This market was built on a piece of land next to the main garden. This land had been empty and unused before.

Teaching About Food Systems

In 2010, Yonnette Fleming teamed up with Karen Washington. Together, they started Farm School NYC. This school teaches people in the community. It shows them how to grow their own food and create local food systems.

Current Work and Impact

Today, Yonnette Fleming is the vice president of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden. She works to solve problems like food security and food justice. Food security means everyone has enough healthy food. Food justice means everyone has fair access to good food, no matter where they live or how much money they have.

She leads workshops for people of all ages. These workshops teach about:

• Cooking healthy meals
• Urban farming techniques
• Using herbs for health
• Plant medicine

In her workshops, she encourages people to think about how unfair systems have affected their lives. She helps them learn how to stand up to these challenges.

Yonnette Fleming is also on the advisory board for Farm School NYC. There, she teaches a course about food justice. Besides her work with food, she is also an ordained minister. She practices plant and sound medicine and is a reiki master. She believes that working with the land and farming can help people heal from difficult experiences, especially from the effects of racism. She has seen many of her students go on to start groups in their schools. These groups discuss important topics like food sovereignty.

See also

• Food Justice Movement