Forgotten Foods

Forgotten Foods is a non-traditional, youth-led nonprofit organization for Staten Island youth, neighborhoods, and street corners. We develop, train, and organize youth to transform Staten Island’s systemic issues, local spaces, and narrative. Staten Island youth are a central voice in building neighborhood power and autonomy in Staten Island and beyond.

We envision a Staten Island that acknowledges historic harms against marginalized communities and actively repairs them. A borough where:

• Young people can organize, learn, work, create, live, and dream
• Staten Island’s most marginalized communities build and keep neighborhood wealth.
• The “forgotten borough” label is retired, and our contributions to New York City’s culture, economy, and identity are recognized.
• Youth lead multigenerational coalitions that address the root causes of injustice.
• Shorelines, neighborhoods, blocks, and street corners are shaped by the people who live there.
• Staten Islanders run a strong, interdependent, just food system and local economy.
• Land taken from Indigenous peoples and marginalized groups is returned and stewarded by the groups harmed.
• The harms and atrocities committed against African-American and Indigenous communities in Staten Island are uncovered, acknowledged, and remembered to create new futures and just worlds.