The Food Project in Lincoln, MA was among the earliest urban agriculture projects to
focus on youth in their programming. Operating since 1991, The Food Project unites
youth of diverse backgrounds and uses food production and marketing as vehicles for
developing leadership skills. The Food Project connects youth from the suburbs and
inner-city Boston, building relationships amongst youth across race, class, and location.
The Food Project provides internships, fellowships, a summer program, and a Saturday
program that runs during the academic year. The success of The Food Project dem-
onstrates that providing a space for youth in which to build community and learn job
skills yields positive results.
In the time since The Food Project began nearly two decades ago, more urban ag-
riculture programs for youth have begun around the country. Highlighted here are
four model programs around the country, all of which have their own unique twist on
improving the lives of children and promoting food security through urban agriculture.
From Minneapolis to Seattle, from Rochester to Durham, these programs and their par-
ticipants are innovators in the fight against urban degradation, hunger, malnutrition,
and community disengagement.
Rochester Roots Address
Rochester Roots
121 N. Fitzhugh St.
Rochester, NY 14614
Phone: 585.232.1463
Email: roch.roots@frontiernet.net
Website: www.rochesterroots.org
Contact: Jan McDonald
Mission
Rochester Roots is committed to
the creation of urban, school and
community garden-based edu-
cational programs for youth and
adults. These programs focus on
growing, preparing and enjoying
high quality, safe and affordable,
healthy food.
About
Rochester Roots, Inc. began
in 1975 as the Politics of Food
Rooted in the Community Program, the food and hunger
Rochester Roots’ programmatic work focuses on community food security, urban agri- task force of the Rochester Peace
culture, sustainable agriculture, and community development. These four tenets pro- and Justice Education Center. In
vide a well-rounded approach to bolstering youth development through agriculture. 1991, they became an indepen-
dent not-for-profit with a focus
Rochester Roots has three schoolyard gardens, which total 1-1/2 acres: the Clara Barton on sustainable food systems. In
School PS #2 is a one acre urban farm; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. PS #9 has a courtyard 2005, they formally changed their
garden; Bethany House hosts a 40’ x 120’ market garden located behind School #9; and name to better reflect their urban
The Franklin Montessori School on Norton Street has a greenhouse and a courtyard. roots, urban agriculture program,
All four of these sites are located in food insecure, low-income communities. They also and their new and strong focus
partner with the Horizons Program, a non-profit entity of the Harley School. This pro- on youth. Rochester Roots works
gramming provides 110 Rochester youth with year-round cooking classes and summer in impoverished neighborhoods,
garden activities. 90% of the plants grown in the gardens are heirloom quality. with elementary school students,
teachers and volunteers, to estab-
Paid internships are offered to low-income teenagers in July and August. Parent and lish organic vegetable gardens
child seasonal cooking classes are taught from November to May. They market Petal directly on school grounds.
Power and Green Power skin salves and lip balms, Job’s Tears seed bead jewelry, and
recycled denim paper baskets processed with garden plants. They also offer consultant
services for schools and organizations who want to start organic vegetable gardens.
Rochester Roots’ Community Garden Project motto is: “Growing Youth, Growing
Community, Growing Food,” and it does just that. The Community Garden Project
transforms underutilized schoolyards into thriving urban gardens with the aid of com-
munity partners like teachers, students, parents, and experienced gardeners. The best
part: all of the produce grown at the schools goes back to the students and commu-
nity members in Rochester. Rochester Roots serves over 600 youth and 38 teachers
through their agricultural projects, internships and cooking classes. The teachers use
the gardens as a vehicle of integrated learning.
Mission
SEEDS encourages respect for life,
for earth and for each other. We
help individuals, neighborhoods
and communities grow together
through gardening, gathering
and education.
About
South Eastern Efforts Develop-
ing Sustainable Spaces, Inc.
(SEEDS) was founded in Durham,
NC in 1994 by local community
leader Brenda Bodie. A vision- “DIG”-ing Deeper
ary, Bodie sought to change the In 2000, South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces (SEEDS) created its first
conditions of Durham’s neighbor- youth entrepreneurial program: DIG (Durham Inner-city Gardeners). DIG operates on
hoods through gardening. This a quarter-of-an-acre plot in northeast downtown Durham. Teenagers there are taught
vision took shape when SEEDS how to grow organic produce, herbs, and flowers in a sustainable manner. Later, youth
partnered with Phoenix House, sell their products at the Durham Farmers’ Market and are paid a stipend for their work.
a transitional housing unit for
homeless men. SEEDS’ first com- Every Saturday, the youth prepare lunch together using as much produce from the
munity garden was created there. garden as possible, and are given hands-on lessons in food skills, cooking, and proper
Largely through volunteer efforts, nutrition. DIG Coordinator Kavanah Ramsier says, “We use gardening as much as pos-
additional gardens have been sible as a tool to talk about the food system, the role that food can play in our quality of
planted across Durham, changing life, and the choices we have.”
the lives of community members
for the better. That’s not all DIG teens do. Participants also lead workshops for younger children
through SEEDS’ Youth Are What Youth Eat (YAWYE) program. YAWYE is a peer educa-
tion initiative through which young people educate each other about the way foods
are processed and why. DIG youth also discuss their experiences of growing, eating,
and selling organic produce.
Mission
The mission of Seattle Youth Gar-
den Works (SYGW) is to empower
homeless and underserved youth
through garden-based education
and employment. SYGW began
as a small volunteer landscaping
project to address the needs of
homeless youth in the University
District of Seattle. SYGW is under
the administrative umbrella of the
Church Council of Greater Seattle
and is responsible for its own Growing for the Future
program development and fund- Seattle Youth Garden Works sees agriculture as a means by which to empower youth
raising. We enroll participants and an avenue through which to instill a work ethic, personal responsibility, and coop-
and provide all services without erative skills. Youth are identified and screened through a collaborative process that
regard to our expectation of reli- involves SYGW Americorps volunteers, referrals from case managers, and Interagency
gious participation or affiliation. Seattle schools.
About Once hired, youth work in 12-week sessions. The beginning of each session includes
SYGW was founded in 1995 by setting expectations and reading and discussing the employment contract. “Soft
Margaret Hauptman. Through skills”-- the basic skills and courtesies that young people need to succeed in a work
her volunteer time at a drop-in environment – come first, according to Executive Director Janice Dilworth. Within the
center, she came to recognize the
need to provide employment and
first week, work in the greenhouses and gardens begins. This ranges from starting
empowerment opportunities for seeds to sell as plants at market in the spring to a full farmers market stand in the sum-
homeless youth in the University mer and fall. Throughout the 12-week session, weekly Education Days provide youth
District of Seattle. She began a with formal training in interview skills, preparing cover letters and resumes, customer
small landscaping project that has service, and “how-tos” for exchanging constructive criticism with their colleagues. As
grown into a successful farm-
to-market project that employs
many SYGW participants are transitory, many youth benefit from basics such as tutori-
homeless and underserved youth als in how to set up an email account and how to store information electronically so
from neighborhoods in the South that they can access their work-related documents from libraries, schools, and others’
Seattle area. The gardens have computers.
become ground zero for teaching
business and employment skills,
encouraging empowerment, and
SYGW has been seeing an increase in interest in their employment slots with the recent
science education. SYGW grows economic downturn. But even before the faltering economy made common youth jobs
on several plots in Seattle, one harder to come by, SYGW has been seen as a unique opportunity for youth. The com-
of which is part of the University bination of intrapersonal, business, and employment skills are invaluable to making
of Washington’s Arboretum and youth more hirable in the future and helping them to move beyond low-paying hourly
whose lease is “paid” for by SYGW
through service hours. By working
jobs. In addition, math and science are woven into learning to work in the gardens and
on various non-agricultural con- broader environmental lessons. And youth benefit physically through increased fruit
servation sites in the Seattle area and vegetable consumption and the exercise of garden work.
during the colder months, SYGW
manages to provide a broader Community members help support SYGW by purchasing garden-grown seedlings and
context for their environmental
ethos and to provide employment
produce from the market, thus making the youth programs more sustainable than if
for youth during all four seasons. they solely relied on grant funding.
Seattle youth garden works
Youth at the Core
Youth have a major incentive to succeed at SYGW. Though they begin their employ-
ment at minimum wage, they become eligible for shares of the season’s profits after
their first four weeks of work. SYGW supervisors evaluate youths’ performance and
allocate shares accordingly. At the end of the market season, half of the annual profit
is recycled back into the program and the other half is distributed to youth. SYGW is
working towards building more incentives into their programming. Currently, there
are two lead gardener positions within the organizational structure. Those youth who
perform exceptionally are eligible for one of these two year-long internships, which
pay a bit more. By encouraging people in their participants’ support network to come
to program events such as graduation, youth can showcase and celebrate their accom-
plishment of seeing a project from beginning to end with their friends and family.
Empowering a Generation
Programs involving youth training through urban agriculture are popping up rapidly
nationwide, and are increasingly garnering attention for their unique approach to job
training, experiential education, and their ethos of community-building and service.
Grassroots organizations and schools
are using gardening, farming, and
farmers markets as a means to various But even before the faltering
ends: to instill better nutritional values, economy made common
help bring better food into under-
served neighborhoods, and teach
youth jobs harder to come
practical business and entrepreneurial by, SYGW has been seen as a
skills. Each program has its own set of unique opportunity for youth.
priorities and methods, but all share in
having youth at the core of their pro-
gramming. As demonstrated by the programs highlighted in this guide, training young
people with the skills necessary to produce, prepare, and market food has great poten-
tial to nurture a more educated and empowered generation to bring about change in
urban areas most afflicted by economic hardship and lack of access to good food.
Resources & Links
Organizations and Networks
Rooted in Community: www.rootedincommunity.org
BLAST Youth Initiative: www.thefoodproject.org/blast
WHY (World Hunger Year): www.whyhunger.org
WHY’s Food Security Learning Center: www.whyhunger.org/fslc
Community Food Security Coalition: www.foodsecurity.org
National Farm to School Network: www.farmtoschool.org/
American Community Gardening Association: www.communitygarden.org
Center for Food & Justice: http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/cfj/
Growing Power: www.growingpower.org
Growing Food and Justice Initiative: www.growingfoodandjustice.org
Funding Opportunities
Harry Chapin Self Reliance Awards: This award distributes cash grants ($7,000 maximum award) to outstanding grassroots
organizations in the United States that have moved beyond charity to creating change in their communities. Organizations
selected as Harry Chapin Self- Reliance Award winners are judged outstanding for their innovative and creative approaches to
fighting domestic hunger and poverty by empowering people and building self-reliance.
www.whyhunger.org/hcsra
Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program: Community Food Projects are designed to increase food security
in communities by bringing the whole food system together to assess strengths, establish linkages, and create systems that
improve the self-reliance of community members over their food needs.
www.csrees.usda.gov
www.whyhunger.org/fslc
Curricula
The Food Project:
Heifer International USA Program: Heifer USA field staff work in www.thefoodproject.org
partnership with communities to plan, design and implement urban
agriculture projects that produce and market food locally. Heifer National Gardening Association:
provides seed funding and ongoing technical assistance to implement www.kidsgardening.org
the project. Rutgers Cooperative Extension:
www.heifer.org gloucester.rcr.rutgers.edu
Sustainable Agriculture and Education Program (SARE): SARE is a competitive grants program providing grants to research-
ers, agricultural educators, farmers and ranchers, and students in the United States.
www.sare.org
WHY is convinced that solutions to hunger and poverty can be found at the grassroots level. WHY advances long-term solutions to hunger and poverty by supporting community-based
organizations that empower individuals and build self-reliance, i.e., offering job training, education and after school programs; increasing access to housing and healthcare; providing
microcredit and entrepreneurial opportunities; teaching people to grow their own food; and assisting small farmers. WHY connects these organizations to funders, media and legislators.
WHY, 505 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2100, New York, NY 10018 | Tel. 212.629.8850 | Fax 212.465.9274 | www.whyhunger.org
WHY´s Grassroots Action Network (formerly known as Reinvesting
In America) is made up of thousands of innovative community-
based organizations across the country fighting hunger and
poverty. Join us. grassrootsnetwork@whyhunger.org