Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Crop Production: beekeeping, crop improvement and selection, food processing
- Education and Training: demonstration, mentoring, youth education
- Farm Business Management: community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets/farm stands, labor/employment, whole farm planning
- Soil Management: composting
- Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, employment opportunities, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, public participation, quality of life, social capital, urban agriculture
Abstract:
The Youth Corps’ understanding of many aspects of urban farming and community food system development are reinforced and illustrated through hands-on farm instruction. Teens cultivate vegetables, herbs and flowers across all phases of farm production. At many of our locations, Youth Corps also manage an onsite community farm stand, and provide a window into the economic and entrepreneurial opportunities within the food system. The goal is for teens graduate with a comprehensive understanding of sustainable food system development and the ability to connect and communicate how their skills gained on the farm translate to any career path they may follow.
Project objectives:
Spring/Summer Farm Program Outcomes:
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Teens will be exposed to career pathways in urban agriculture, culinary arts and micro-enterprise development through field trips and guest speakers.
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Community harvest festivals at Roosevelt Square, and South Chicago Farms.
Micro-enterprise Program Outcomes:
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Teens will received advanced training in micro-enterprise development.
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Teens will develop a signature product line using Urban Growers Collective flowers, herbs and farm products.
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Teens will learn how to market, fulfill orders and manage inventory of the product line.
Progress Update January 2023
UGC is excited to share some updates around our Youth Corps programming and progress towards the outcomes and objectives outlined in our initial proposal. Please see below for an overview of activities Youth Corps participants have been involved in in our Spring, Summer, and Fall programming.
Youth Corps Participation in UGC Farm Stand Management
One example of these outcomes being worked towards in real time is through UGC Youth Corps participants’ involvement in managing our farm stands. Youth participants learned how to run and set up a farmer’s market at UGC’s South Chicago Farm. The Farm Stands occur at programming sites, and provide opportunities for students to interact with community members through sales of produce grown by UGC and Youth Corps members. Our Farm Stands provide an access point for community members nearby our farms to engage with and purchase food directly from UGC.
Youth supported all aspects of Farm Stand management from planning/harvests and sales, stocking produce for sales, as well as practicing customer service skills like listening and meeting customer needs. The farmstand made a total of $1,124 for the Fall 2022 season. UGC provides stipends to teens for program participation, thereby simulating real-life work experiences and encouraging program retention. In fact, rates of program completion are high, and participants often go on to complete the next season’s sessions. In addition to helping to curb program attrition, we offer stipends as a way of building youth confidence and teaching them that their work has value.
Youth Corps Collaborative Farm Planning
Another way our teens have been gaining confidence and exploring career pathways within the food system has been through learning how to build out their own farm plans. Youth Corps participants worked in groups for several weeks researching and building their farms by pinpointing food access issues they see in their communities and creating mock programming and infrastructure to address the inequities. Their business plans included: farm title, farm logo, Mission Statements, Problems and Solutions, infrastructure designs, roles, job titles for each presenter, and budgets. Teens presented their farm visions to the Instructor, Coordinator, and each other in a mock grant proposal, with the outcome being the chance at a 32 million dollar grant to jumpstart their farms. After presentations, youth used Talking Circles to reflect and debrief their experiences creating these visions in collaboration with their peers and expressing things they learned about themselves and each other in the process. Through their Talking Circle, they decided the best outcome for all of the vision farms would be to create a farm coalition, or collective. To end the Build a Farm activity, participants got together with their respective farms to designate a spokesperson for an “International Joint Coalition of farms.” They sat in a coalition council to merge all of their farms’ missions and work to collectively address food access and climate change in the communities their farms would serve.
Youth Corps Participants take on Leadership Roles at Harvest Fest
UGC hosted a Harvest Fest this October on our South Chicago Farm site to bring community members together to celebrate the Fall season and connect with one another. Our Youth Corps participants had the chance to take on leadership roles to support Harvest Fest in running smoothly. Teens spent the day preparing the farm stand, decorating the entry ways and tables for the fest, dressing up/painting for the occasion and working together to complete the harvest of all the crops they tended to over the summer in their designated Youth Corps garden at the South Chicago Farm. Youth Corps participants took on leadership roles by acting as liaisons of the arts and craft table for the community and working the harvest fest photo booth. UGC had about seven Youth Corps participants stay after program hours to continue working the event, and all of those who stayed brought their siblings and relatives along to join in the trunk or treat and farm tours happening throughout the afternoon. The Harvest Fest was a day for our Youth Corps to build community and deepen their understanding of the Harvest as it relates to their farming lessons from the Summer into the Fall.