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Rising up, Hakim Jeffrey didn’t assume a lot about politics. However folks would usually level out that his title sounded similar to the title of his consultant in Congress, a rising star within the Home and fellow Brooklyn native.
“All of them would simply inform me, ‘You must meet this man some day,’” Mr. Jeffrey mentioned.
He brushed it off. Mr. Jeffrey, who lived within the Bay View Homes, a public housing growth in Canarsie, considered himself then as “only a common 16-year-old boy from the tasks.”
Then, at 18, he began engaged on a brand new farm on the growth, one in every of a number of the New York Metropolis Housing Authority had helped construct to offer wholesome meals for residents.
He beloved it.
Earlier than, he had been an introvert who skipped college to play video video games. On the farm, he would give necessary folks excursions, displaying how he grew chard, kale, tomatoes, squash, basil and different produce.
Mr. Jeffrey, now 24, bought extra concerned, discovering function in serving to a public housing neighborhood usually missed by the skin world, except a constructing was falling aside.
On a cloudy March afternoon final 12 months, one in every of his tour members had a well-known title. That was when Hakim Jeffrey met Hakeem Jeffries.
“‘You may have the best title on the market,’” Mr. Jeffrey remembers Mr. Jeffries telling him.
The assembly between Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Jeffries, 53, a Brooklyn Democrat and the Home minority chief, was perhaps simply an amusing coincidence. However Mr. Jeffrey additionally noticed it as one thing a little bit greater than that: a second that highlighted the underappreciated potential of Brooklyn’s youth.
Civic management is often the bailiwick of older folks, particularly in New York Metropolis’s public housing system, the place practically 43 p.c of the households are headed by folks 62 or older. Mr. Jeffrey goals to alter that.
“How we will enhance our life — it begins with our younger folks,” he mentioned.
Mr. Jeffries, the congressman, grew up in a modest brownstone in Central Brooklyn, part of the town that within the Eighties was additionally formed by the drug commerce. He was a part of an earlier era of Black politicians — together with Mayor Eric Adams and Letitia James, the state’s legal professional normal — who got here up in Brooklyn.
Individuals commonly ask if Mr. Jeffrey was named after Mr. Jeffries, who’s 30 years older. Past their upbringing within the Black neighborhood in Brooklyn, there’s no connection, Mr. Jeffrey mentioned. His father was Muslim and preferred the title Hakim. However he doesn’t thoughts the comparisons.
Initially from Bushwick, Mr. Jeffrey moved together with his mom and sister to Bay View in 2009. He mentioned his weight loss program, like that of different youngsters who lived within the Canarsie advanced, included copious quantities of meals from Dunkin’, Popeyes and McDonald’s close by.
Mr. Jeffrey mentioned it felt just like the atmosphere was “designed to maintain you unhealthy.” He has bronchial asthma and mentioned he observed how folks residing at Bay View usually had diabetes, hypertension and different well being issues. The neighborhood district that features Bay View has an weight problems price of 41 p.c, about 16 proportion factors increased than the town general.
Earlier than he found the farm, he felt unmotivated. He had no plan for his life after he graduated from highschool in 2017, and spent most of his days “killing time.”
His mom introduced dwelling a flier that marketed a brand new AmeriCorps program run by Inexperienced Metropolis Power, a nonprofit, on the Bay View farm, which was in-built 2016.
There are 9 such farms throughout the town, and the quantity is rising. Bay View is the most important; its two acres was once an empty subject the place Mr. Jeffrey would play soccer with different kids.
He was skeptical. However he mentioned he would strive it.
This system enrolled younger folks between the ages of 18 and 24 to assist run the farms and finally get jobs that might use these abilities. Mr. Jeffrey mentioned his “entire complete life modified.” Instantly, folks appeared desirous about his future.
He discovered pleasure in educating residents at Bay View about wholesome meals. He took to it so effectively that Inexperienced Metropolis Power employed Mr. Jeffrey in 2019 to coordinate different farm staff at Bay View.
He was just lately promoted and now works with younger folks at Bay View and 5 different developments, together with on Staten Island, in Queens and in Brownsville in Brooklyn.
Andrea Mata, NYCHA’s director of resident heath initiatives, mentioned Bay View residents “needed to come to phrases with not seeing him as usually.”
“There’s by no means sufficient Hakim to go round,” she mentioned.
The farms produce hundreds of kilos of produce yearly, accessible free to public housing residents. When Mr. Jeffries visited final March, he lauded Bay View farm as a promising mannequin for find out how to enhance diet in underserved communities. He additionally had some phrases for his tour information.
“That title is fairly simple for me to recollect,” he mentioned in a speech. “Hakim Jeffrey, thanks a lot to your extraordinary management and your work.”
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