Annie Novak

Annie Novak is the founder and director of Growing Chefs, a field-to-fork food education program; the children's gardening program coordinator for the New York Botanical Gardens; and co-founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn. Annie Novak is founder and director of Growing Chefs, a field-to-fork food education program; the children's gardening program coordinator for the New York Botanical Gardens; and co-founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in partnership with Goode Green and Broadway Stages. Annie has worked with the CENYC Greenmarket, Slow Food, and Just Food advocating and growing urban agriculture throughout New York City. Her work in agriculture has been featured in New York Magazine, Edible Brooklyn , and on the Martha Stewart Show.

A lifelong vegetarian, Annie's passion for agriculture began while she was working in Ghana with West African chocolate farmers. She has since followed food to its roots in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Fiji, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Alaska, and the American West and Midwest; her adventures are cheerfully blogged at growingchefs.org .

Since 2005, Annie has worked with the Meerkat Media Collective to write, produce, act and film in several films and documentaries. Her work has been screened in New York City and in festivals across the country. Titles include award-winning felt animation WWee Dark Hours and My Felt Bike; award-winning documentary short Every Third Bite; and narrative feature-length film A Little Death.

In her free time, Annie has run five marathons, builds and races bicycles, and birdwatches. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2005.