Dubbed “America’s Largest & Longest-running Sustainability & Green Living Event”, it makes sense for the Green Festival Expo to take place in one of the largest cities in the world. From May 5th-7th, environmental activists, health nuts, and concerned citizens descend at the Javits Center to check out the booths that range from advertising vegan ice cream to cleaning local parks . In particular, on Sunday, May 7th, two Green Festival Expo booth participants spoke with Trashtalker about how their organization and/or business benefits the city.

Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project  is a urban rooftop garden located in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, operating for the past six years. With the city’s growing problems concerning the lack of green space and freshly grown produce, Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project is the answer to these problems. At the Green Festival Expo, Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project volunteers man the booth as they educate the visitors of their organization. Joe Perdue, the Food Justice Coordinator of the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project, spoke further about their mission and its place in supporting a cleaner New York City.

Since 1984, the Chelsea Garden Center have been serving urban gardeners to create beautiful gardens in the Red Hook area and more recently, the Williamsburg area. With their mission to beautify New York City, the Chelsea Garden Center aims to provide New Yorkers the highest quality of plants for reasonable prices. Other than selling plants, they also provide classes to teach customers about garden design. Annie O’ Sullivan and Christine Monroe, employees of the Chelsea Garden Center, spoke about Chelsea Garden Center’s history and what they do to educate their customers.

These New Yorkers are doing their part to clean the city, what have you been doing to help New York City? Comment below about the role you play to help make this city cleaner!