Action for Nature

Meet our 2023 International Young Eco-Hero Winners, environmental activists recognized for solving the world's most critical environmental

August 2023

2023 INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ECO-HERO AWARD WINNERS 

Action For Nature is proud to announce our 2023 International Young Eco-Hero Awards, which recognize young people 8 to 16 years old for their environmental achievements. We hope the accomplishments of these outstanding young people will inspire many others to preserve and protect the Earth upon which all life depends. 

SHIMON SCHWARZSCHILD AWARD

Steven Hoffen

Age 14

New York, New York, USA

Growing Peace Inc.

When Steven was 11 years old, he visited an organization in Israel called Sindyanna of Galilee and was inspired by the two founders, a Jewish woman, and a Muslim woman, working together as friends to foster community peace. He started filming a documentary called “Growing Peace in the Middle East,” to raise awareness about their latest project – building hydroponics systems in the homes of Arab women.

Hydroponics avoids environmentally damaging aspects of conventional food production and solves the problem of land scarcity, which is especially extreme in Arab neighborhoods in Israel. After learning that hydroponics is also very cost-efficient and requires less physical work than regular farming, Steven created the nonprofit Growing Peace Inc. to deliver modern agricultural technology solutions to underserved communities. Specifically, Growing Peace deploys hydroponic towers that efficiently grow a range of leafy greens and herbs such as Allstar lettuce mix, butterhead lettuce, kale, bok choy, collard greens, cilantro, basil, and mint.

Steven has developed, installed, and brought online four hydroponic systems – one at a food pantry for Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in Tel Aviv, and three in New York City – at Dr. Topeka Sam's The Ladies of Hope Ministries (LOHM), a facility to help reintegrate formerly incarcerated women of color, at the YM/YHWA of Washington Heights which provides fresh produce for low-income and disabled seniors, and at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (which services up to 30,000 people) for their food pantry. The Tel Aviv hydroponics system feeds up to 600 families twice a month with over 2,100 servings of fresh food (25,200 servings per year), and the New York City towers produce up to 1,800 pounds of yearly produce and over 6,300 servings per year. Combined, Growing Peace’s hydroponic gardens produce over 31,500 servings per year to asylum seekers, formerly incarcerated women of color, and low-income/disabled seniors.

Steven’s latest project, with the support of Dr. Topeka, is to work with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to install a hydroponics system at a minimum security prison for women, using federal funding. If successful, the Bureau will consider rolling out a hydroponics program at other facilities over the next few years. He is also working with United Jewish Appeal to set up more hydroponic gardens in the Bronx.

“I feel that hydroponics is something that can make a real difference in people’s lives in an authentic, tangible way,” says Steven. “It allows people to have fresh produce, gain financially by selling the surplus food, feel proud, and also profit from their efforts.”

growingpeaceinc.org