Running with Edible Schoolyard NYC · TCS NYC Marathon 2026

26.2 miles to make edible education accessible for every child in NYC.

I'm Jacob Andrews and on November 1, I'm running the NYC Marathon for Edible Schoolyard NYC, a nonprofit bringing hands-on cooking and gardening into NYC public schools, ensuring that every child has access to great food and education. Goal: $5,000. Every dollar goes to ESY.

Donate to ESY Meet ESY first

About ESY NYC

Small seeds, big impact.

Edible Schoolyard NYC is a nonprofit on a mission to make edible education accessible to every child in New York City. They build garden-and-kitchen classrooms inside public schools — where kids plant, cook, and share meals together, and where lessons on science, culture, and community come from the soil up.

12,000+

NYC public-school students reached every year through ESY's hands-on programming.

100%

of donations from this page go to Edible Schoolyard NYC. I cover my own race fees.

501(c)(3)

Tax-deductible nonprofit. Your gift is on its way to a real garden bed in NYC.

Slot 01 · runner

Jacob, in the garden

Volunteer day · ESY

Why I'm running

Hands in the dirt, again.

When I first moved to New York City, I fell in love with it immediately — and I still am. But one thing I didn't expect to miss was using my hands. Getting in the dirt. Making something grow.

The first time I volunteered with Edible Schoolyard NYC, I got that back — and I got to see firsthand what it does for the kids and the community around it.

The impact is real. You can feel it. I've been entering the NYC Marathon lottery for years, and this felt like exactly the right reason to finally run.

— From, Jacob

The climb

Mile by mile, dollar by dollar.

0% · Just getting started

$0raised of $5,000 goal

$0$1,250$3,000$5,000 · Goal

Where your dollars go

Every gift is a season of something growing.

ESY tells me their dollars stretch further than you'd think. Below is my best read on what each tier funds — these are drafts, and I'll firm them up with the team. Either way, every cent goes to programs.

Mile 6 · Brooklyn

^$500

A full season of seeds & starts.

Tomatoes, garlic, basil, kale — the soil bed for one classroom's spring through fall harvest, plus the gloves and trowels they'll wear out using them.

Mile 13 · Halfway

^$1,000

One cooking class for a whole grade.

Knives, cutting boards, an instructor, and groceries to round out what didn't come from the garden — about 80 kids cooking and eating something they grew themselves.

Mile 20 · The wall

^$2,500

A family table dinner night.

One full community supper for ~150 students, parents, and neighbors — cooked in the garden kitchen from that week's harvest. The night people remember.

Mile 26.2 · Finish

^$4,000

A year-round bed at one school.

Curriculum, supplies, and a teaching gardener for one raised bed — every class, every season. The reason a kid says "I grew this" for the first time.

From the garden

Where the dollars go to grow.

Slot 02 · 4:5

ESY garden, wide

Raised beds in season

Slot 03 · 3:2

ESY garden, close

Hands · soil · students

Slot 03b · 3:2

Garden, alt frame

Mobile fallback

So many problems are tied together, and they could all be solved by having a school garden.

— 5th grader, P.S. 216 Arturo Toscanini · Brooklyn

I'll do the 26.2.
You do the $26.20.

Chip in to ESY

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