Matthew Menzies is a passionate Artist-Designer, with a focus on sustainability and eco-efficient production methods.  Formerly with the GrowNYC Farmstand Program for the 2015 and now 2021 seasons, he has recently joined the Compost Program as the Regional Manager for the Bronx and Uptown Manhattan.  Post-Pandemic, Matthew chose to leave the commercial art industry and refocus his career on service to underserved communities.  A Spanish Harlem native, long time Brooklyn Resident, and a first-generation New Yorker from the nation of Belize, Central America, Matthew is particularly focused on service as a liaison and advocate for the Latinx communities uptown and in the outer boroughs to City Hall.  As a culturally literate specialist, Matthew is poised to assist the Compost Program Management Team with their re-expansion into the Bronx.

                Coming from a family of distance runners—his father ran five marathons in the nineties—Matthew grew up waiting at mile marker seventeen, hanging from a lamppost straining to see his father, Keon, amongst the deluge of runners.  Keon would stop for hugs and pictures, before continuing onto the finish-line.  At the time Keon was studying medicine at Mount Sinai, fulfilling his dream of becoming a cardiologist.  For them, running and healthy lifestyles was a central component of a balanced life.  It was also a family sport that was easy and accessible to a young immigrant family on a student stipend.  Matthew asked to join the GrowNYC marathon team to bring awareness and visibility to what he calls the ‘two New Yorks’, the one we talk about, and the one we don’t.  His fundraising campaign has been focused on spreading the word about the roughly one million New Yorkers, a large portion, people of color, children, and elders, who live in food insecurity.

                These African diasporic, Latin American, and South Asian communities need our love and support now more than ever as the pandemic and soft reopening continue to destabilize micro economies and the New Yorker way of life.  GrowNYC is committed, through outreach and access, to serving these communities.  Running the marathon is the conversation starter, but the bigger discussion begins around how to undo harmful patriarchies, cultural white-body supremacy, and END poverty, hunger, sickness, and low education access.  Why not start here, in our hometown? Why not start now, as the people of New York come out to support these athletes?  Matthew is going to wake up on Sunday and hit the 26.2-mile course--snaking through those very same neighborhoods--and focus his heart and mind, on bring joy, care, and love to all the people of this great city.