THE LIFESTYLE BUILDING STORY
Enrica Sacca grew up in The Lifestyle Building and almost lost her home to chronic disease.
For as long as she can remember, her mom suffered from ongoing medical issues that created a tremendous financial and emotional burden on her family. But it was the stress from her mom’s eventual liver transplant that caused Enrica to seek a different path forward.
In 2014, Enrica started paying closer attention to our food system – and was discouraged by what she saw. Looking for hope, she discovered urban farmers like Josh Lee and enthusiastically supported him as he scaled up his microgreen business, Green Top Farm. Her journey continued in a partnership with Rob McGrath from Hellgate Farm who was looking to create a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program in Astoria. Selected as one of the CSA’s four gardens, dedicated volunteers built the space in one day.
Watch the backyard transform:
Hard working urban farmers installed a water cistern, maintained the garden and allowed it to blossom. Christina Chan served as farm manager before passing the baton to farmer James Kaechele.
Christina Chan
Christina is the owner and farmer of Choy Division, which is the culmination of her passions and interests. As a native New Yorker and second-generation Chinese-American, she often felt torn between being American and being Chinese. Sustainably growing Asian vegetables has been a way of connecting the two halves of herself, of finding her way back home, and of reconnecting with her culture and her family. For her, farming is about more than putting seeds in the ground, it is about the cultivation of the community around you. After all, food is what connects each and every one of us. She believes that fresh, locally grown food is a right, not a privilege, and strives to make her produce accessible to all communities.
She has worked at Stepney City Farm,(London, UK), Randall’s Island Urban Farm, (New York, NY), Rise & Root Farm(Chester, NY) and counts herself incredibly lucky to have mentors in Larry Tse of Dig Acres, Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm, and Dan McManus of Common Hands Farm.
James Kaechele
As an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, James Kaechele has been connecting people with plants for more than a decade. James’s formative years were spent hiking and camping throughout the hardwood forest of New England which led to four years of university study at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY. In the following years James taught children about vegetable gardening, taught Green industry professionals about plant pests and diseases, and planted street trees as part of the MillionTrees NYC initiative. Since 2013 James has dedicated his professional life to fostering unlikely partnerships to care for New York City’s urban forest, helping unite business and community leaders with urban foresters to realize fully greened streetscapes. James also teaches plant identification courses at the New York Botanical Garden and spends his vacation planting fruit trees around the world with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. Between all this, he has a carefully curated collection of plants in his tiny backyard in northwest Queens.
As The Lifestyle Building’s backyard garden grew, so did Enrica’s resolve to take back her own health.
The Human Microbiome Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History proved to be a turning point in how she viewed nutrition and the importance of the body’s microbiome. It inspired her to dive into the Plantbased Nutrition Course from T. Colin Campbell’s Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell.
The evidence showing the power of whole food plant-based nutrition amazed her. As a foodie who loves to cook, she prepared whole food, plant-based meals everyday while studying. Within a few weeks, she had a moment that stopped her in her tracks. She realized she felt completely different — like never before. This was not just a diet – it was the science of nutrition.
Today, The Lifestyle Building provides a space for the community to come together and unite around the shared goal of living a healthier life. In addition to the garden, the front of the building provides a perfect space to gather for educational presentations, cooking demonstrations and film viewing parties.
Future plans include an onsite lifestyle practitioner’s office to provide a space dedicated to healing. Where instead of writing a prescription, the clinician could recommend a whole food plant-based lifestyle and provide a backyard garden tour and tasting.
The Lifestyle Building has hosted a number of community events, including:
Sensory tour for children. They experienced the wonder of the garden, planted seeds and learned about worms. (The kids loved the worms!)
Virtual tour with our urban farmer to learn what is growing in the garden.
Nutrition presentation with a salad dressing recipe demo and a garden tasting.
Please contact us if you would like to support The Lifestyle Building.
“It’s priceless when someone new experiences the garden. They transform.”
— Enrica Sacca
THE FOUNDER OF THE LIFESTYLE BUILDING
Enrica Sacca
Founder, The Lifestyle Building
Queens Borough Organizer, Plant Powered Metro New York (PPMNY)
Enrica is building the network for whole food, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition in Queens. As a first generation Italian-American, Enrica is extremely driven. Her family came to the United States to ‘make it.’ Within ten years, they were all sick from the Standard American Diet. Today, Enrica has cured herself of colitis and has dedicated her life to supporting individuals who are just as driven as her — but who need help putting their health first. To create balance and stability in her communities through individual and planetary health and wellness, she started the PlantPure Communities pod, Plant Powered Queens, in 2018 and is part of the founding team of Plant Powered Metro New York (PPMNY). A resident of Astoria, Enrica previously ran a specialty travel company for 20 years before moving into real estate management. She holds a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell, and a business degree from Pace University.
Caption: Nutrition scientist T. Colin Campbell PhD and Enrica Sacca