This Experiential Learning Farm Helps Youth Build a Better World

In the U.S., a movement of Black farmers is trying to reclaim their legacy as agrarians. Only 1.7 percent of farms were run by Black farmers according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Black farmers are forming collectives, creating land trusts, creating conferences.

In the middle of Milwaukee's toughest neighborhood, an organization called We Got This helps kids get off the streets and into the garden. Each summer, teens spend Saturdays working in a community garden to produce food for their neighbors. Andre Lee Ellis, the founder of We Got This, uses a "tough love" approach to set kids on a life-long path of confidence and respect.

A Catholic covenant in India, Helpers of Mount Rosary, promotes organic farming to locals and visitors from across the country on 40 acres of farming and training fields.

Isles, Inc. provides plants, seeds, and support to over 70 community gardens in Trenton, 20 of which belong to schools. In a city where many residents experience food insecurity, Isles also maps food-assets and food deserts, runs a training garden to teach new growers the basics of at-home gardening, and hosts a free summer camp to get young people interested in agriculture and nature. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Isles has distributed over 100 pounds of seeds, 1,000 pounds of fertilizer, and thousands of seedlings to its garden network members and shifted many instructional workshops online.

Whereas urban farms provide supplemental nutrition, agricultural neighborhoods make farming one of their central features. In Detroit, Michigan, the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) has grown from a local community garden into a nationally recognized agricultural neighborhood that has fueled transformation and investment into the area. MUFI partners with other community organizations to combat food insecurity. And while providing free food to the surrounding community, MUFI also sells products like hot sauce.

At one high school at the Menasha Joint School District in Wisconsin students are growing their own vegetables inside a classroom. That’s because they have their own a hydroponic garden, a garden that does not require soil. The homegrown produce is part of their meal program and is leading to positive effects. Students express more interest in learning about vegetables and feeling more connected to gardening. “They have a very personal connection to that produce.”

Project Feed the Hood, a community effort to increase food access and security for lower-income families, has established gardens and pilot programs at ten schools in Albuquerque. The program originally aimed to convert lawns into gardens while giving youth an alternative to military recruitment. Now, it is run by community volunteers and also offers paid internships for youth. “We’re here to resist, to reclaim our food systems, our community spaces,” explains one of the project's dedicated staff members.

Growing Change, a rural North Carolina youth organization that focuses on keeping kids out of jail, focuses on flipping prisons to not only revitalize and bring environmentally friendly practices to the community but also offer the kids something to work towards. In its initial pilot, the group saw a 92% success rate with keeping these kids out of jail and employed in the program.

Sustainable agriculture and farming is on the rise on a national level, but it's not often so simple to get into the practice, especially for those that are new to the U.S. A farmer training program based in Washington County, Minnesota is trying to change that by enrolling a small group of interested Somali-Americans in a curriculum focused on becoming the next generation of farmers in America.

Community leaders are working together to address the issue of food insecurity in Mansfield, caused not just by lack of access to grocery stores and fresh food sources, but also often by unemployment, high housing costs, low wages, poverty, and health care costs. The North End Local Foods Initiative is installing food gardens in these communities, creating access to fresh produce, to educational opportunities, recreational activity and more.