Tony Hillery

Tony Hillery

Harlem Grown

Tony is the Founder and Executive Director of Harlem Grown. Harlem Grown was founded to address the health and academic challenges facing public elementary school students in Harlem, NY. In 2011, Tony began volunteering with a local elementary school and was witnessing first-hand the lack of resources allocated to the schools and the poor nutrition of students. He noticed an abandoned and overrun community garden across the street from the school. Tony rallied volunteers and raised the funds needed to transform the lot into a thriving urban farm, kicking off Harlem Grown’s first-ever growing season. The first year, Tony worked with 400 students to plant 400 seedlings. He watched as students transformed their eating habits and learned skills like patience, teamwork, and responsibility. The first season, they grew 38 pounds of produce. Nine years later, Harlem Grown has expanded to partner with five local Harlem schools, reached over 4,900 youth, composted over 35,000 pounds of food scraps and grew over 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables that are then distributed to families-in-need throughout the community free of charge.

Tony’s work in the Harlem community has impacted more than just the youth, Tony has done his part to help transform the community through the power of growing food and building healthy relationships.