Nineteen-year-old Junior Leiva has carefully plucked peppers that will end up in stores across the country in bottles of Bronx Hot Sauce – a product made with produce grown at community gardens across the borough.

“We give these 23 urban gardens seeds. They grow the seeds. We buy them back from the people and we pay them $4 per pound,” said Julia Fitzgerald, Bronx Hot Sauce VP of Sales.

Those gardens already have grown 750 pounds of peppers this year. It’s enough to make 30,000 bottles of hot sauce and earn Leiva and three others working at Brook Park some pocket change.

“I think it’s pretty cool because instead of going to big companies they come to us,” Leiva said.

The folks behind all of this want Bronx Hot Sauce to become a kitchen staple, but there’s more to it than that.

“When you purchase a bottle of this sauce, it helps a lot of people,” said King Phojanakong, Creator of Bronx Hot Sauce.

Nineteen-year-old Junior Leiva has carefully plucked peppers that will end up in stores across the country in bottles of Bronx Hot Sauce – a product made with produce grown at community gardens across the borough.

“We give these 23 urban gardens seeds. They grow the seeds. We buy them back from the people and we pay them $4 per pound,” said Julia Fitzgerald, Bronx Hot Sauce VP of Sales.

Those gardens already have grown 750 pounds of peppers this year. It’s enough to make 30,000 bottles of hot sauce and earn Leiva and three others working at Brook Park some pocket change.

“I think it’s pretty cool because instead of going to big companies they come to us,” Leiva said.

The folks behind all of this want Bronx Hot Sauce to become a kitchen staple, but there’s more to it than that.

“When you purchase a bottle of this sauce, it helps a lot of people,” said King Phojanakong, Creator of Bronx Hot Sauce.

Learn more:

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2015/11/25/bronx-hot-sauce-.html