Palmetto Senior High incoming senior Joseph Kravetz has a desire to help others. He and a friend, Ryan Rosner, created a community service project called Rescue Garden with the mission of planting gardens at local homeless shelters.
“We planted 72 square feet of garden space at the Miami Rescue Mission (in Overtown),” he says.
The garden features bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant.
“Those go straight to the kitchen,” Kravetz says. “They can be made into meals for the residents.”
Those residents are in programs that teach them how to become more self-sufficient. Miami Rescue Mission program graduates help tend the vegetable garden on days Kravetz can’t go by.
“We planted the first garden in April,” he says. “We went back to the garden two or three days a week to water it, reorganize and replant what we needed to, and talk to the people there. We love going there and we have become very close with the Rescue Mission community.”
The Rescue Garden program has been such a success that they have received several requests for new gardens.
“Our goal is to expand to as many shelters that have space available,” he says. “The more gardens we can make, the greater the impact, and the more people we can serve.”
They chose the Miami Rescue Mission for the first garden because Kravetz had volunteered there before, and they were very accommodating.
“Since I was little I have had experiences in helping the less fortunate community,” Kravetz says.
Kravetz says he’s been able to get other classmates involved as well.
“Our big focus with the project is getting other people involved,” he says. “Our project is a direct outlet for our friends and community members to come and help, and to feel good about doing it.”
He hopes to find someone who can take over the project when he and his friend go off to college.
This is Kravetz’s second service project. In ninth grade he started holding an annual “Turkey Bowl” football tournament.
“I usually invite 30-50 people to play football for a charity tournament,” he says. “We do it the day before Thanksgiving. Appropriately, it started as a way of giving back in the spirit of the holiday.”
The inaugural Turkey Bowl was held at Coconut Grove’s Kennedy Park. This past year it was held at Pinecrest Gardens. Over the years they have collect more than $1,000 to donate to the Jewish Kosher Food Bank of Miami.
He’s also organized a sneaker drive, also affiliated with the Miami Rescue Mission, called Share Your Sole, through the National Honor Society.
“Last spring, we collected almost 100 pairs of shoes,” he says.
He’s the incoming president of NHS. As president, his goal is to motivate members to start their own service projects—ones that they feel passionate about.
Kravetz is a member of the varsity History Bowl team and the incoming vice president of political action for the Social Science Honor Society. He competes on the Mathematics team for Mu Alpha Theta, specializing in Calculus.
He’s the parliamentarian of the Student Council Senate, a member of the Jewish Student Union and a member of the Spanish Honor Society.
He hopes to go to a high tier university or an Ivy League school for college. This summer he’s attending the Yale Young Global Scholars program.
“My sector is based on sustainable development and social entrepreneurship,” he says.
Last summer he interned at the South Florida office for Ros-Lehtinen. This summer he’s interning for a not-for-profit law based organization called LawWithoutWalls.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
