Final report for YENC25-228
Project Information
Local Harvest CSA in partnership with Children of Promise Mentorship Program (COPMP) expanded and refined a fledgling farmer apprenticeship program that hires and trains young people. The Future Farmer Apprentice Program provided 10 youth apprentices with hands-on training in regenerative farming practices on a working vegetable and livestock farm, introduced them to farmers allowing them to envision farming as a viable career path, and provided individualized mentoring and education in employment skills and regenerative agriculture principles.
Our Educational Approach:
The educational approach was hands-on, small group learning grounded in farmwork. The curriculum is based on popular education.
Conclusion and Adoption
The conclusion is that doing curriculum about the sustainable agriculture principles along with the employment soft skills is very helpful for a youth program. The more focus that you can put on the sustainable agriculture principles and formalizing your youth program, the more successful your youth employment will be (in terms of retention, engagement, work, etc.). For instance, we have 3-4 youth who will be returning for their fourth summer this year. We will continue using this curriculum going forward.
- Increase sustainable farming skills of 8-12 high school apprentices through an 8 week on-farm apprentice program which will include skills and safety training, 3 days/week apprenticing on a working farm, 1 day/week employment class, and individualized mentoring.
- Youth apprentices have the opportunity to network with local farmers on 1-2 field trips, and are introduced to sustainable agriculture career opportunities through 2-3 guest speakers to the employment class.
- Produce a short guide including 6 farm skill lesson plans, and 6 food system lesson plans for other farms interested in employing and/or educating young people on their farms.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation summary:
Presented at Practical Farmers of Iowa’s annual conference in 2026. One youth co-presented.
- Other
Learning Outcomes
Humane livestock handling (students especially reported learning about how meat was produced)
Food safety
Hydration and nutrition practices for working outside
We recruited 10 youth to participate in our nine week farm apprenticeship program. Apprentices worked on the farm 3 days/week.
Challenges for Youth Employment:
- Transportation
- Learning a new management style:
- Supervision
- Additional support (ex: required water breaks, reminders to eat food)
- Initial training
- Admin
- State dependent: child labor permits
- More part-time employees = more paperwork
- Communication with employees and with parents
Benefits of Youth Employment
For a Farm:
- High energy, excited to learn
- Trainable
- Good retention
- Most available during peak season with occasional interest/availability in part-time winter hours
For the Youth (from the youth):
- ‘I get to see cute baby animals and get free veggies’
- ‘Mental health matters most to everyone’
- ‘Flexible work - can get time off’
- ‘Builds skills’
- ‘Many different jobs and tasks’
Components of Sundog Farm’s Youth Employment Program → Creating a positive youth work culture
- Onboarding/ training
- Goal Setting & Individual Mentorship
- Weekly food system workshops
- Weekly employment skills class
- Tour another farm
- Host a youth tour
- Network/learn from other types of farmers
- Fun!
Early June: We had planned to complete all training in the first 2 weeks of the program, but in reality it stretched over a longer period. Carmen and Maja led 6 skill-building training sessions. Some were held as a full group, and others as rotations in smaller groups (especially the livestock, so as not to overwhelm the animals).
- Food Safety- Learn Local Harvest CSA’s food safety protocols, and complete the harvest day food safety checklist. Very important to put this on day 1.
- Harvest and post-harvest handling- Learn the proper techniques for harvest, and pack each vegetable to be transported to the CSA pickup.
- Farm Safety- Learn basic equipment safety (they won’t be operating it themselves), and how to physically be ready for work each day. We will review the importance of proper hydration, nutrition, stretching, and safe lifting practices.
- Germination House Management- Learn how to read a crop plan, soil-blocking, seeding, and watering.
- Organic Weed, Pest, and Disease Control- we will go on a field walk to demonstrate how crop rotation works, scout for pests and diseases, and see a mechanical cultivation demonstration.
- Humane Livestock Handling- Learn the basics of livestock handling in our rotational grazing system, learn how to use portable electric fence, and complete low stress daily livestock moves.
Mid June- Mid August: Dan will teach a 7-8 week Skills to Pay the Bills Class, and apprentices receive an attendance stipend. Class topics include critical thinking, networking, problem solving and professionalism. There will be 2-3 guest speakers with careers in sustainable agriculture that will likely include a community college agriculture program professor, a nonprofit program coordinator, and NRCS conservationist.
Mid June- Mid August: Carmen, Maja, and Carlos lead interactive food system workshops on the farm each week. Topics included ‘what is the food system?’, regenerative agriculture, finding food resources, seed saving, and Community Supported Agriculture.
Resources
- Becoming the Employer of Choice (BTEC) for Vegetable Farmers by Fairshare CSA Coalition
- Ag Apprenticeship Toolkit: A Guide to Developing or Improving an Ag Apprenticeship Training Program on Your Farm or Ranch Developed by the Ag Apprenticeship Learning Network, 2018
- When is an employee manual important and how do I create one? From Farm Commons
- Combines learning about regenerative practices with soft employment skills.
- Provides a formal structure for our youth program, which has increased our retention, engagement, and work.
Project Outcomes
This grant certainly helped us focus on the teaching part of employing youth. The origin of the project was, from training and educating youth workers in the past, we realized that we needed a little more interactive but slightly more formal education about sustainable agriculture. We’re very good at teaching farming skills, but we wanted them to understand the why’s of sustainable practices. For example: if we are teaching ten youth how to move and set up electric fence, and one asks “but why do we do rotational grazing?” it’s very hard to stop and explain that while the other nine are getting tangled in the fence. Developing this curriculum gives us the structure to engage youth with the principles of sustainable agriculture as well as the practices.
We did a pre- and post-survey as well as a celebration where youth shared what they learned. The kids proposed that the celebration included a “Farm Olympics” with a series of competitions/challenges. Afterwards, everyone shared a meal (ribs). We hope to do this event as a collaboration and competition with another farm that hosts a youth crew next year. I think it went well because it was a youth-led endeavor. It was a lot of fun, though didn’t have a ton of touchy-feeling reflections - but everyone did share what they learned and what they liked. For instance, one youth shared that thing that stood out to her the most was that when she was moving goat fence and she had to troubleshoot and help a goat. She felt equipped to help the goat, so she knew she had learned a lot.