Growing roots at youth farm

Lyndale Youth Farm hosted its annual Harvest Festival on Wednesday, August 12. Harvest Fest is a big end of the year party celebrating all the work the Youth Farmers did during the summer.

People from all over the neighborhood came to enjoy fresh food, live music and a performance by Youth Farm’s very own step team. The event was a huge success with over 300 people attending. The Harvest Fest is a great way to bring the community together and inform them about a valuable program right in their neighborhood.

Youth Farm and Market Project is an urban gardening summer program for kids ages 8 to 13. Youth Farm teaches youth about growing and eating healthy, organic produce, as well as an array of other life skills. There are three Youth Farm sites in the Twin Cities.

This summer, Youth Farm grew and harvested about 880 pounds of produce. This produce went to our Buying Club, a program where 19 families in the Lyndale Neighborhood received a bag of produce once a week from our gardens. In addition to the hard work the kids do in the gardens, they also participated in afternoon groups that included Step Dance, Biking and Adventure Club, a group that does art projects as well as fun field trips around the city.

 Another large part of Youth Farm is the project lead program that offers a job opportunity for youth who are too old to be in the program. These 14 to 18 year olds work throughout the year planning and training for the summer and then work as counselors during the summer program. The Youth Farmers and staff all had a great summer, learned a lot and had a unique experience at Youth Farm.

For more information, go to www.youthfarm.net.

Sally Peterson lives with her family in CARAG, is a student at Perpich Center for Arts Education and was a Project Lead at Lyndale Youth Farm.