Cleaning Air with Plants

Written By Elaine Perlman

Everyone from NASA to butterflies knows that plants are a key to good health!

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I love my 40+ houseplants. My inspiration grew from learning about Summer Rayne Oakes’s 500+ houseplants in her Brooklyn apartment.

Plants clean our air of toxins, give us life, and provide us with their good company that brings joy to our environment.

Where do I buy my plants in NYC? I listed them in order of my love for them.

  • Urban Garden Center - 1640 Park Avenue between 116th and 117th Streets in East Harlem, Manhattan

  • Noble Plants - 106-A West 28th Street between 7th Avenue and Avenue of the Americas

  • The Sill - 84 Hester Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets in Chinatown, Manhattan
    448 Amsterdam Avenue between 81st and 82nd Street on the Upper West Side, Manhattan

I have also purchased plants at the Union Square Farmers’ Market as well as at Trader Joe’s.

Elaine Perlman

Elaine is aiming to pass two federal laws in the United States, the End Kidney Deaths Act and the Honor Our Living Donors Act. Elaine is the Executive Director of Waitlist Zero, an advocacy group that seeks to end the kidney shortage and provide kidneys to the 90,000 people who are waiting for their lives to be saved in the United States. Both Elaine and her son Abie gave their kidneys to strangers. Elaine founded the groups NYC One Kidney Club, Kidneys 4 Strangers, and Vegan Kidney Donors. She leads the Global One Kidney Club meetings and the Ask Me Anything meetings for the National Kidney Donation Organization. She is also on their Mentoring Team. Elaine cohosted an National Kidney Foundation workshop about the benefits of plant based eating to promote kidney health in addition to a cooking demonstration. Elaine has been a mentor for Plant Powered Metro New York during nine Jumpstarts that help people make the transition to plant based eating.

From 2016-2022, Elaine was a Professor and Program Director for the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. For 30 years, she has been a teacher of nearly every subject for all grades from 2-11, in addition to 7 years of teaching children under the age of five. Elaine was a public school specialist teaching children in grades 2-5 about eating healthy foods in the South Bronx, Crown Heights, and Harlem through the Coalition for Healthy School Food. Elaine has painted eleven school murals. She completed the Columbia University course "Food and Nutrition For All," the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate course from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell and the Main Street Vegan Coaching Certificate course.

http://elaineperlman.com/
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