For years, Tony Hillery owned and operated a limousine service in New York City. But after the recession hit, his business dwindled. In 2011 he decided to use his downtime to volunteer at a public elementary school in Harlem — a small step from which an entirely new career took root.
The idea for his nonprofit, Harlem Grown, began in the school lunchroom. Hillery quickly recognized a need for good nutrition, ambitious goals and role models. He started recycling, and the kids jumped in to help. They graduated to composting, and it was a natural next step to take over an abandoned community garden nearby. That year, 400 children at the school planted 400 seedlings. “If a child plants it he will eat it, guaranteed, write it down,” Hillery says in this poignant profile produced by Josephine Decker for the Museum of the City of New York. “And 8 out of 10 times, they will like what they eat. But then we are back to square one. Where do you get it from?”
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