The Urban Youth Growers is a summer program designed to empower youth in the community while growing food for the hungry.
Through collaboration with Escape Ministries’ Career Connections, four to six teenagers receive summer employment while furthering valuable life skills of integrity, analytical thinking, motivation, cooperation, and creativity through engagement in a curriculum based on Soul Fire Farm‘s Youth Program. These skills are developed as the youth engage in discussions on social justice, personal development, and farming as an applied field of work.
The program is rich with hands-on experience and the opportunity to visit other farms, all while offering a taste of the fortitude required to do the necessary and repetitive work a farm demands. Youth got their hands in the dirt while covering the following topics:
- Waste/composting
- Soil health
- Plant anatomy and plant nutrition
- Harvest and food safety
- Mindful eating
- Self-care and seeking stillness
- Community building and food justice
The youths also participate in CSA distributions at the farm and at the Holland Farmers’ Market. Through this they gain an understanding in the people who end up eating the food they grow.
Using this framework to depict the multiple influences shaping our interactions with food, youth gain a deeper appreciation for the role of not only individual responsibility, but of the environmental and structural forces that shape the food system and culture. One of the unique aims of our program was to furnish the participating youth with the critical thinking and knowledge base to work on the macro-level problems towards long-term solutions and widespread positive change.
This program was made possible through corporate sponsors and foundation backers. We are hoping to offer this program again in upcoming summers, but this is dependent on funding. If you are a part of a company or foundation that would like to partner in this good work, please contact us at info@eighthdayfarm.org.
A special thanks to our financial backers: Herman Miller Cares and Walters Gardens, Inc.
