An organization of environmental volunteers inspiring and empowering action for a better future Founded in 2008 by Eric J.
MEVO is a 501(c)(3) environmental not for profit whose missions is, "To be the model for the creation of scalable ecological solutions that inspires and empowers people to take action for a better future." Fuchs-Stengel out of Mahwah High School, we focus on local environmental projects that invite in our community members to participate in hands on action and through volunteer events. Our project
s included our Fresh Roots Farming Program, Stag Hill Trash Cleanup Program, Internship Program, Volunteer Program, and more. As an organization founded by young people, we strive to keep the leadership and focus on MEVO in the hands of young individuals. Our staff remains in their 20s and we strive to provide educational, volunteer, and internship opportunities to students K-College as our organizational focus. However, people of all ages and capabilities are more than welcomed into our programs. We believe that stewarding our community is an effort that requires to participation of everyone! To join our efforts, learn more about our programs, find out how to purchase our organically grown produce, or to donate, visit our website at https://www.mevo.org/ and see what we are up to on facebook and instagram .
08/15/2025
🌱Yesterday we said goodbye to our 2025 Summer Interns. To end their season, the interns showcased a creative project that best represented what they learned during the summer, went on a swim in Harriman, and ended with a potluck and closing ceremony. We’ll miss them on the farms and on the trails but are exciting to see where they go next!
⛏️ The work our crews completed on the State Line Trail, in the Ramapo Reservation, and more were often the only time the trails got touched all season.
🥕 Without the entire crew’s help on the farms, we’d be hard pressed to complete the weekly demands of the farm during the busiest time of the growing season.
🌻 Please join us in thanking our summer interns for all the amazing work they completed for us this summer!
07/30/2025
🌱Yesterday we taught a cooking class for as part of their summer wellness class!
🍅We made cooling recipes that required no heat to make! Including a gazpacho, multi green pesto, and a farm salad. All with veggies, herbs, and flowers from our farm!
🙋♀️Interested in a class like this? We offer a wide range of classes from basic herbalism workshop, simple but tasty farm to plate classes, gardening 101, and more!
📧Email us at [email protected] to learn more and get a class on the calendar.
07/21/2025
✨This past week our summer intern crew and staff embarked on our annual week long workcation where we travel to Vermont and Upstate New York to work and learn and
🫐We started the trip for our 11th annual summer visit where we split wood, built bird houses, mulched and weeded blueberries, stacked wood, trimmed back trails, and more! During this leg of the trip interns were challenged with a two miles rigorous hike two and from work each day from our cabin deep in the woods. We of course had a great bonfire, swam daily, and did some hiking in Green Mountain State Forest.
🥕To end our trip we visited where we helped with mulching asparagus, weeding, learning from and more! We visited some cool swim spots and got to feast on meals sourced 100% from the farm.
🌻This trip is an integral part of our summer internship program. We are grateful to both these places for always taking the time to welcome us, educate us, and give us impactful and meaningful work!
07/09/2025
We’re 65% sold out of our 10th Annual Farm Feast on August 23rd at our Fresh Roots Farm!
🔗 Head over to the link below purchase your tickets!
🥕 Enjoy a night of farm to table dining, blue grass music, a great silent auction and more!
Kate Markowski, English Literature and Environmental Studies Major at Salve Regina University
Crew: Trail Crew
Why Join Mevo: I joined MEVO because I wanted to learn while outdoors, connect with my community, and develop new skills in the environmental field.
Favorite Part: Being out on the trail is my favorite part of the internship. I love being immersed in the forest and using new parts of my brain while working on the trail. Also, I love seeing and hearing all of the birds!
Fun fact: I am running a TikTok account documenting the MEVO experience ! Go check it out!
07/04/2025
🌻 As part of our Farm to School Program we’re running free kid/ family free workshops this summer at our farms and school gardens in Mahwah!
🍂 Our first workshop is on Fall Gardening…the time is now to start your seeds and begin prepping for fall abundance!
🥕 Suggested age is 12+ for this workshop but all ages are welcomed 🌱
🌈 This is a FREE workshop. Sign up via the link in our bio!
07/01/2025
🧄Huge Shoutout to for helping us with our annual garlic harvest this last Saturday. Each year they help us to harvest and trim almost 4,000 heads of garlic! Without their help, this would be a multi day project.
🙏 We’d also like to extend a big thank you to them for reccently awarding us an extremely generous grant yesterday!
🧡 Orange and Rockland Utilities has been a crucial supporter of MEVO since 2019. Their support helps to drive forward our boots on the ground, hands in the dirt mission work.
06/30/2025
🌱This summer we’ll be highlighting each of our amazing interns. This week, meet Claire!
🥕Name, Major, School: Claire Fitter, Environmental science, Stockton University
🥕What Crew are you on?: Trail Crew
🥕Why Did you join MEVO: I joined MEVO because I wanted to gain experience with trail work and become more knowledgeable in the field, as well as learn more about organic farming.
🥕Favorite Part of the Internship: I really enjoy being able to work outside in nature and connect with people who are as passionate about the environment as I am!
🥕Fun Fact: My favorite hobby is magnet fishing!
06/26/2025
🧄Join us for our annual garlic harvest this Saturday, 6/28, from 9:30-? 🕤. With many hands we may end around 12:30pm!
🧄We will be pulling the garlic from our field, trimming it, and getting it all set to cure for 3 weeks.
✂️ If you have hand pruners or heavy duty scissors, please bring them for trimming!
🔗 You can sign up to attend via the link below! An email will be sent with last minute details the night before the event. We’ll be working at our Lovewell Farm, 40 Peterson Place, Mahwah.
⬆️ Help us increase our visibility on this platform for a chance to win one ticket ($200) to our 10th Annual Farm Feast! The Feast is on August 23rd and is a multi-course farm to table dinner at our Fresh Roots Farm in Mahwah 🥕 To enter:
1️⃣ Share this post!
2️⃣ Tag three friends!
3️⃣ Donare $5 by venmo or through this link: https://www.mevo.org/donate. You receive a double entry if you make that donation monthly 🗓️
🌱 You can read more about the Farm Feast via the link below. A winner will be drawn on Friday.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when MEVO posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Welcome to our page! We are an environmental not-for-profit ran primarily by youth, but supported by individuals of all ages. Our mission is to be the model for the creation of scalable ecological solutions that inspires and empowers people to take action for a better future.
The focus of our organization is to educate and empower the most current generations on the importance of sustainability in our lives and local communities. We teach at earth fairs, schools, summer camps, and on the farm about a myriad of environmental topics ranging from pollution to bees. Although we focus primarily on grade school through college age students, we welcome the opportunity to provide educational programming to groups of all types. Additionally, we can provide merit badges for both girl and boy scout groups and welcome Eagle scouts and Gold award recipients and their project ideas to our farm
Our primary program is our two-acre Fresh Roots Farm at Campgaw Mountain County Reservation in Mahwah, New Jersey, and our newest farm is Lovewell farm, a one-acre plot situated in a suburban backyard. Our farms are a hub of energy welcoming thousands of volunteers each year who have a desire to give back to the community and get their hands dirty. We run open volunteer days 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Tuesday and Sunday at the farm. We also welcome school field trips, corporate volunteer days , and service groups to come out on a day that best suits. To arrange a field trip or service day contact [email protected].
In total MEVO has three acres of farmland that we manage and grow thousands of pounds of clean, nutritious, and sustainable fruits and vegetables every year. You can buy our food and support our farm by purchasing a share of our Community Supported Agriculture program (http://mevoearth.org/csa/), and next season we will have a weekly farm stand at our Fresh Roots Farm.
In addition to volunteers, a small army of seasonal interns in the spring, summer, and staff manage the day to day operations of MEVO both on the farm and off. Our team is exploring some of the most innovative sustainable farming practices available through using permaculture, biodynamic, and permaculture techniques. From building a greenhouse constructed out of 80% recycled materials to laying out our raised beds to most efficiently use rain to irrigate our crops we strive every season to put new sustainable practices in use.
One of our inaugural programs has been the remediation of Stag Hill through organizing trash clean-ups since MEVO's first volunteer event in 2008. To date, we have carried out over 85 trash clean-ups and removed well over 500,000lbs of waste from the forests of Stag Hill in Mahwah, New Jersey. This massive number includes over 5,000 tires, paint, cars, tar shingles, insulation, and much more. We organize many trash clean-ups a year and they are all published on our page and website.
