Maria is a bilingual educator and community worker who joined Community Food Action in 2018 to coordinate its cooking and gardening initiatives. On the one hand, she leads the Farmers Markets for Kids, and on the other, she coordinates CFA’s work in schools and is the service site supervisor for its two FoodCorps Service Members.

Her efforts in promoting and advocating culturally responsive educational environments have allowed Maria to practice in the classroom, at the Battery Urban Farm where she was tenured for two years prior to joining the CFA team, and at various other alternative community-based educational settings. She strives to contribute to the economic and sustainable development of migrant, minority populations in NYC through fostering increased social/political awareness, and implementing educational initiatives around healthy food, agricultural autonomy, and heritage language preservation.

Maria believes that by rescuing the innate connections we have with nature, we can develop a love of place. And love for our shared home ground leads us to care for it and act against its destruction and exploitation, which is our own. Children in particular “allow themselves to be imprinted by place” and if they’re lovingly devoted to a place, that is the beginning of action.