Our most visible work with youth takes place during our 8-week summer program. Each participating youth attends the program three days per week, and is part of a smaller work group of 6-8 youth. Groups work with paid staff “on the farms” in neighborhood plots where they plant, care for, and harvest produce and flowers. Youth also work to prepare healthy, culturally appropriate lunches every day of our summer program. That’s over 4,150 meals a summer! In addition to their farm and cooking work, all youth get the opportunity to attend a overnight farm camp at at Philadelphia Community Farm in Osceola, WI, work with community artists on different project, and explore different work opportunities through field trips.

During the school year, we work with over 300 youth in both neighborhood-based and school-based activities. Our school year program features 2-3 different learning opportunities (after school garden, cooking, greenhouse) per week throughout the fall and spring, as well as a week long spring session. We also utilize public school release days during these sessions for activities and field trips to farms, restaurants, food banks, and a variety of other locations. Another main focus of our school year program is to connect with schools and other organizations in our three neighborhoods in order to create strategic partnerships, and to reach more youth with our farming, cooking, and community-building activities.

Due to the short growing season in Minnesota, we could previously work on growing produce only in the summer and early fall. Because of this, we constructed a greenhouse in collaboration with Cherokee Heights Elementary School on the West Side of St. Paul, allowing us to greatly lengthen the season. During the school year, youth are involved in planning gardens, planting starts for summer growth, and planting other crops. Our greenhouse has become one of our best recruitment tools. We are also developing a greenhouse-specific curriculum to use with youth farmers, schools, and other organizations throughout the winter months. Our program staff currently works with three 5th and 6th grade classes at Cherokee Heights Elementary School during the fall and spring as a part of the science classes. In 2009 we would like to work with our Project LEAD participants to create a business plan to launch a value added product line in 2010.