Newark Veterans To Host 'Let's Grow Newark' Festival

The Rutgers Veterans Environmental Technology and Solutions (VETS) program invite the community to attend the first “Let’s Grow Newark” festival, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at the VETS facility at 555 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Newark.

The event is free and open to the public.

The festivities will include tours of the greenhouse and community garden, music, games, crafts, healthy snacks and family-oriented attractions, and will include representatives from multiple community groups working in Newark.

According to a release, the Rutgers VETS program was launched in May 2014 to reduce immediate health risks to people who eat fish caught from the Passaic River, while empowering local, unemployed veterans with new green job skills.

The program is a collaboration between Rutgers University, the Metropolitan Baptist Church Reassertion Community Development Corporation and the Lower Passaic River Cooperating Parties Group, comprising 60 companies working together to improve the condition of the Lower Passaic River.

On June 20, the VETS class launched the first-ever fish exchange in the United States. The Rutgers VETS participants raise healthy fish to exchange with contaminated fish that some anglers are taking from the river as food. The waste from the fish is used to provide nutrients such as nitrogen to vegetables growing in this connected system.

According to a release, the VETS program donates about 250 heads of lettuce grown in the greenhouse each week to the food pantry of the Willing Heart Community Center, located on-site. In summer, the VETS program also provides tomatoes and seasonal fresh vegetables.

Learn more about the program by emailing Rutgersvets@gmail.com or calling 973-732-2383. Interested participants can also visit the VETS program at www.rutgersvets.org.