Eric Fuchs-Stengel
S
ustainable Agriculture Specialist
Northeast Region
Topic Areas:
Business Planning, Crops, Local Foods
Specific Areas of Expertise:
Social entrepreneurship; business planning; not-for-profit management; volunteer and internship management, small-scale farming; market gardening; lean farming; farm infrastructure layout, design, and construction; natural beekeeping
Eric is the former Executive Director of MEVO (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization, Inc.) an environmental not-for-profit organization he founded when he was sixteen years old. While leading MEVO he accomplished a wide array of environmental action programs such as: Designed and built the Fresh Roots and Lovewell Farm which provide healthy nourishing food to the local community members. He established an experiential environmental internship program for college and high school students which has trained and educated over 350 youth leaders. He also partnered with the Ramapough Lunaape Nation and organized over 100 trash clean-ups on their native lands of Stag Hill removing over 300 tons of dumped waste from the forest eco-system. Among the many honors Eric has received for his work in 2014 he was declared a “New Jersey Hero,” by the Governor. That same year he was also awarded the National Jefferson Award for Public Service, “The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities.” In 2016, he received the Excellence in Environmental Education Award from the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education the youngest recipient of the award ever. He is a graduate of New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study and has worked with a wide array of environmental not-for-profit and activist organizations.
Education:
Bachelor of Arts in Ecological Sustainability and Social Change, with a minor in Environmental Studies, New York
University Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Previous Experience:
Executive Director and Founder, June 2008 to September 2022
Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization, Inc. (MEVO), Mahwah, NJ
Envisioned mission and created all programs and systems of the organization: three-acre Fresh Roots Farm and Lovewell Farms; Stag Hill trash clean-ups; trail building; honey bee apiary; fall, spring, and summer environmental internships; and much more.
Summer Crew Leader/Outreach Coordinator, September 2014 to August 2019
Rockland Conservation & Service Corps (RCSC), Pomona, NY
Recruited and trained over 125 college aged summer corps members to work on various environmental sustainability and conservation projects throughout Rockland County, NY.
Featured Videos:
Why Do We Admire Youth Revolutionaries from Thunberg to Fuchs?, Reforestation Nation
Experiential environmental education: Eric Fuchs-Stengel at TEDxBergenCommunityCollege