YFS Sowing Opportunities for Youth Leadership (SOYL)

Youth Educator Destiny Durham: The SOYL project was a success. This project has given students enriching experiences that have built their foundation of knowledge on organic gardening practices, sustainable agriculture, our food system, and food justice. The project period began in March 2023 and concluded in August 2024 with the students’ presentation of their sustainable practice and a youth-led hands-on activity with their younger peers. A final survey was conducted and 70% of respondents reported positive changes in their knowledge, attitude, skills, or awareness of agricultural practices since participating in the SOYL Project; 25% reported they would consider a career in agriculture. Just this week, we received hydroponic STEM kits from NY SunWorks to supplement the hydroponic lessons the youth have had to date. Participants will have additional education sessions about hydroponic gardening and will be able to take the kits home.

Some challenges we’ve overcome throughout the project include staff changes, frequency of participants in classes, and time period spent on project. Though there have been hurdles, the successes of this project greatly outweigh the challenges.

From March to May 2023, the group had four lessons focused on organic gardening practices, pollinators, and soil health. Students began their summer group sessions with an introductory Group Bingo. The exercise was to match a statement on their bingo card such as “composts at home” or “has given a speech before” to a student in the group. This created a sense of community and connection from the start of our summer classes and field trips together. We then worked to plan and plant the raised bed gardens at General Beadle Elementary school near the YFS Adams St. facility in Rapid City. It was exciting to see the youth taking ownership of the space and working as a team. They were eager to transplant the plants that were started in the classroom in March. In the summer of 2023, the youth took field trips to local farms and ranches including YFS’ Fullerton Farm where they had the opportunity to suit up and see our beehives up close while learning about pollinators. While visiting Dry Creek Farm and Ranch in June, the students were introduced to regenerative agriculture. Owners Kristy and Shawn Freeland took us on a tractor ride (with their friendliest goat) around their property. Their previous crop management system had used traditional agriculture methods, but in recent years they transitioned to regenerative agriculture methods. They noted how the health of their grass and alfalfa fields has improved after not spraying for weeds, not allowing their cattle to eat the grass down to the soil and not working their fields. Now they use an intensive grazing management system, moving an electric fence several times daily. The students were in love with all the animals (pigs, goats, chickens, cows, a guard dog, a ranch dog, and a couple of horses). I believe it changed some of their perspectives about farming and ranching. Some of the students had never even been in grass taller than their ankles. This grass was above our waist at times when we got off the tractor and walked about the field.

In July we took field trips to Spearfish and Sturgis to visit two local farms. At Cycle Farm, the students learned about pollinators, pollinator habitats, permaculture, and regenerative agriculture. Cycle Farm grows vegetables to sell at a small farm stand on the property and several places in the Spearfish community. Owner Jeremy Smith spoke about the importance of a healthy farm ecosystem and explained how each bug, plant, and animal has a specific role in balancing the ecosystem. He let each of us hold a baby chick. The students’ faces lit up while holding them. Jeremy highlighted how they rarely weed. Looking down the rows, it was a bit harder to see the vegetables, but everything was vibrant and green. We learned that plants communicate through their roots, and by not disturbing the roots with tilling and by allowing nature to flourish in the space, over time it made their gardens healthier and more resistant to pests and diseases. They also use cover cropping to preserve the soil when vegetables are not growing.

Our next stop that day was at Bear Butte Gardens. Owners Michelle and Rick Grosek met us at their farm store and then gave us a tour of their farm. We learned about composting, farm animals, guard dogs, organic gardening, pollinators, and working as a farmer and business owner. Michelle steered the conversations to careers. She asked the students how many thought they would like to do something in agriculture. Some students raised their hands. Then she enlightened us on how she started working in this field, growing her own vegetables and selling at farmers markets locally until eventually they built their own farm store and got certified to be organic producers.

Our last summer field trip in 2023 was to the Black Hills Farmers Market (BHFM) on Wednesday, August 9. BHFM hosted a group of 24 youth. Youth brought money to shop at the market and were given questionnaires. The task was to visit five vendors and ask them questions such as, “How did you start selling your own product?” and “Why do you think it’s important to shop locally?” It was a small market that day, so students were able to visit all the booths. When the youth returned, some had whole cucumbers and tomatoes and were taking bites just as they were. Others bought jerky and baked goods and were sharing with the whole group, and some bought produce to take home to their family. This field trip was unique because the youth themselves were participating in our local food system and were free to engage with the vendors on their own.

From September 2023 to May 2024, the students participated in lessons on soil, our food system, food justice, hydroponics, climate change, systems thinking, composting, and vermicomposting. One lesson in the Cornell S.O.W. curriculum was to come up with a list of community agreements that would serve as the rules for themselves and all of the younger classes. Students demonstrated communication, social skills, and teamwork to create these rules. Now they are displayed in the Greenhouse Classroom for every class to reference. An activity in Cornell’s Gardening in Our Warming World: Youth Grow! focused on systems thinking. The activity was to start with a ball of yarn. One student would start by thinking of a problem related to climate change, then they would wrap the yarn around their finger and pass it to the next person who would piggyback on that idea. By then end of the activity, we had a big web of yarn. It helped students to visualize how issues are related when talking about climate change. 

In summer 2024, the students visited the Rapid City Landfill where they learned about waste and composting. Our final field trip was to the Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch. When we arrived, hosts Jillian and Colton took us on a trailer ride to see their processing facility and the buffalo herd. We stopped at a small trailer where workers were preparing the buffalo for packaging. Colton explained that the buffalo on their ranch never see the inside of a trailer like the majority of today’s livestock does. The animals are harvested in the fields by a sharpshooter and brought back to the temperature-controlled trailer for processing. Some students checked out the inside of the processing facility. Next, we rode off into the pasture to see the buffalo herd. The hosts talked about the grassland ecosystem. They explained that buffalo birds, prairie dogs, black footed ferrets, buffalo, and the native grassland all work together to balance the prairie land habitat. Youth were engaged and asked questions such as, “What do they eat during the winter?” and “Why are the babies lighter?” Jillian and Colton also let the kids scavenge for buffalo bones to take home if they wanted. Almost everyone came back with a buffalo bone, mostly skulls. In our next class together, I asked the students to write one thing that they took away from our trip to the buffalo ranch. One response is notable: “The Great Plains prairie grass is better at pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere than the Amazon rainforest.” (Please see the photo with the students’ responses at the end of this report.)

Most of the farms and ranches we visited focused on soil health, so the youth chose to develop a presentation and implement a youth-led activity about composting as a sustainable agriculture practice. On August 12, the students presented their project to 20 2^nd and 3^rd grade students from YFS Girls Inc. YFS Directors were invited to attend. Pairs of students presented the PowerPoint slides they had created about composting. After the presentation, the students directed the young girls to make “compost” in a bag. They had bowls of various food items at each table. Frosted Flakes represented leaves, cranberries represented food waste, crumbled Oreos resembled dirt, gummy worms stood in for live worms, and pretzels looked like sticks or yard waste. With the guidance of the older students, the Girls Inc. members then layered their bag with the ingredients needed to make compost. The last thing they did was shake the bag to add air. Afterward, the girls ate their “compost.” When asked what ingredients are needed to make compost, the girls were able to recite them correctly.