Rockaway Youth Task Force
Located in the heart of a food desert, Rockaway Youth Task Force’s community garden is a thriving oasis amidst bodegas, fast food restaurants, and grocery stores shuttered since Hurricane Sandy devastated the area in 2012.
A thriving urban farm.
Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on neighborhoods in The Rockaways, exacerbating issues that have plagued the peninsula since New York City concentrated a series of public housing developments on the eastern end of the peninsula.

Today, a half-acre garden is thriving: salad greens, tomatoes, and spicy peppers spring up in cheerful orange beds tended by local teenagers. The garden is the centerpiece of the Rockaway Youth Task Force’s work to empower Rockaway’s young people, aged 15 to 25, to civic engagement, volunteer opportunities, mentoring, and professional development. Through the garden, the young people learn that access to fresh, healthy food is their right, and is also in their own hands.

“The garden will serve as a reminder that Rockaway is still here, still in need, and still willing to survive.”
Milan Taylor, Founder
“We are honored to be able to partner with Small Axe Peppers through our urban farm. We want to provide our community with healthier food options and products like hot sauce, made with local fresh produce, works to show residents t
Tamera Jacobs, Director of Operations
“We are not only providing the community with fresh produce, but we are also creating a counter culture where fresh produce is more desirable than the fast food alternatives the community is accustomed to.”
Milan Taylor, Founder
Support Your Local Community Gardens

“We figured out the garden is definitely an economic engine, and it’s a communal space… Our plan is to really keep figuring out how it can be a vehicle for greater social change.”

Each bottle of hot sauce purchased directly supports Rockaway Youth Task Force and many other gardens with vibrant social missions to strengthen the fabric of urban neighborhoods.

Buy NOW!

Christopher Bonilla, Hostos Community College

Other stories from our partners..

New Roots Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City
Small Axe Peppers partners with the International Rescue Committee to help newly settled refugees earn income through farming as they transition to their new life in America.
Brook Park Youth Farm
Mott Haven
At Brook Park Youth Farm, the garden's primary caretakers are teenagers with criminal records who were sent to work in the garden through a court order as an alternative to incarceration.
La Finca Del Sur
Mott Haven
La Finca del Sur is an urban farm in Mott Haven led by women of color, highlighting the agricultural heritage of its farmers who have roots in the American and global south.