Food, Nutrition, and Social Justice

Bio

Giovanni Martin Green is driven by the goal of creating self-determination and increasing the capacity of those he is surrounded by. He works to address the nutritional needs and improve the health status of disenfranchised communities through the use of education, an awareness of the resources available within built environments, and the creation of solutions and interventions that are culturally competent.

Giovanni will be pursuing a Master of Public Health degree at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy. Through the intersections of community activism and his scholarly endeavors, he hopes to invoke healing to the deep-rooted traumas that affect our identities and communities.

Resume

Education

Hunter College, New York, NY
B.A. in Food, Nutrition, and Social Justice through the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program.

• Current GPA 4.0

• Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow

• Hunter College Cancer Disparities Research Intern

• Inclusion on the Dean’s List for the Spring 2018 and Fall 2018 semesters.

Career Experience

King Street Rehab, Rye Brook, NY February 2019 – Present Nutrition Intern

• The completion of full nutritional assessments, reviewing medical charts, interviewing patients, creating a dietary plan, providing dietary education, and evaluating the interventions.

• Developing hands-on cooking demonstrations for rehabilitation patients to address malnutrition and to impact dietary choices during and post-rehabilitation.

Break Bread not Hearts, White Plains, NY December 2012 – Present Owner, Executive Chef, and Head Educator

• I founded this business in 2012 with the intention of “Cooking Up Community” and spreading my curriculum of Food Literacy. We promote the use of sustainable regionally sourced agriculture to empower health, hope, and humanity amongst our communities.

• To diffuse our mission, the business generates capital through culinary endeavors such as catering where I organize and oversee events from birthdays to weddings to fundraisers. We also participate as a vendor in local farmers markets providing health conscious, locally sourced meals to a loyal following of patrons.

• The Food Literacy culinary education program is offered within the Mount Vernon School District through the City of Mount Vernon’s Youth Bureau. On a weekly basis throughout the school year, I teach students in grades K-12 to promote an understanding of our food system and how to develop the culinary skills to plan proper diets that support adequate nutrition and overall wellbeing in a minority-majority community.

• Break Bread not Hearts has continuously developed relationships with a number of libraries, community organizations, and non-profit organizations where I exchange my culinary skills and knowledge on wellbeing with families and individuals from various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Volunteer Experience

Citizen Schools, New York, NY Spring 2013 – Present Citizen Teacher

Citizen Schools is an organization which works towards the goal of closing the opportunity gap for low-income students in various communities across the U.S. Since 2013 I have volunteered with Citizen Schools at Bronx Writing Academy, Bronx, NY, Urban Assembly Unison School, Brooklyn, NY, Isaac Newtown Middle School, Manhattan, NY, and Renaissance School for the Arts, Manhattan, NY. I have developed and teach a curriculum on the arts where students focus on the skills of collaboration and communication to create original pieces of music, film a music video, and market their songs. This occurs over a 12-week period each fall and spring semester and I recently finished teaching my 11th apprenticeship. The students I have worked with have created 25 original songs. In 2016 I received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from the White House for the time I have spent dedicated to Citizen Schools.

Lifting Up Westchester, White Plains, NY Fall 2013 – Present

Lifting Up Westchester is an organization that provides various social service needs to families and individuals throughout Westchester County. Since Fall 2013 I have given my time and resources to their soup kitchen program. Most notably, during the holiday season I lead a team of volunteers on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day to prepare meals with love as the main ingredient for an average of 150 individuals in need.

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY Spring 2009 President, Anthropology Club

I was blessed in having the opportunity to study in Mali during the 2008 Winter semester, which opened my eyes to the vastness of inequity that pervades our society. These observations facilitated the potential for solutions to be developed. Upon returning to Hofstra, the group of students I travelled with chose to begin an organization, Wishing Well for Mali, where we sought to raise donations to build a well in a community we visited. I was nominated as president of the Anthropology Club and we used our platform to fundraise over $3,000 that semester towards our goal. We were unable to complete the project of the well, however, we used the resources we accumulated to provide school supplies and other basic necessities for the specific communities we interacted with. This effort provided insight on how to maneuver through the challenges and triumphs all organizations face in pursuit of their objectives and goals.

Special Projects, Research, and Conferences

The Black Panther Party and the Criminalization of Social Justice

• A thesis that has been developed surrounding the implications of the Black Panther Party and their Free Breakfast Program for Children and other People’s Survival Programs they created.  An exploration of how their public health focused initiatives have been oppressed by institutions of the U.S. government. This work was guided through my scholarly endeavors as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.

Synergistic Partnership for Enhancing Equity in Cancer Health (SPEECH)

• Worked with Hunter College and Temple University to create a cancer awareness campaign and social media presence through the formation of an organization Know Cancer, No Cancer.  With disparities in cancer amongst African Americans, Latinx Americans, and Asian Americans, we worked to empower individuals to be more knowledgeable regarding the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Hunter College Undergraduate Stem Research Conference

• Spoke on a panel regarding my research efforts as an undergraduate.  Also presented my research on the Black Panther Party and the Criminalization of Social Justice.

Hunter College School of Urban Public Health Research Day

• Presentation of my research abstract on the Black Panther Party with Community Health and Nutrition and Food Science majors.

Awards and Acknowledgements

• Recipient of Citizen Schools Citizen Teacher of the Year Award 2019

• Recipient of the Metro Labor NYC Student Journalism Award 2019

• The Olivetree Review publishing of my literary work “Warriors of Wellbeing” in the Spring 2019 issue.

• Recipient of the Memorial Scholarship from CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies for students studying, working in, or preparing for careers in health, human services, social welfare or education.

• Recipient of the Barbara Price Scholarship.

Community Recipes and Literary Works