Land to Learn is proud to partner with Our Core Inc. and Newburgh Urban Farm and Food Initiative (NUFFI) to host Newburgh Garden and Education apprentices through Mayor Torrance Harvey Summer Youth Employment Initiative! Our three-way partnership began in the summer of 2019, during which our organizations hosted nine Newburgh teens who split their time between education programs, gardening with Land to Learn, and farming at NUFFI’s Downing Park Urban Farm in Newburgh. This summer, we are proud to announce that Land to Learn is hosting five Newburgh teens during the 2020 Newburgh Garden and Education Apprenticeship!
Before Covid-19, last year we worked in partnership with Orange County Youth Bureau’s Summer Youth Employment Program, Newburgh Urban Farm and Food Initiative (NUFFI), and Our Core Inc. to offer paid summer work opportunities to local high school students. We provided both an educator and gardening/farming track whereby our youth apprentices are able to choose the focus that interests them. For the educator track, Land to Learn team members Sam and Serena trained the teens in garden-themed summer camp sessions in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh and the Newburgh Armory Unity Center. By the end of the summer, the teens were leading gardening and cooking activities for campers in a beautiful display of intergenerational teaching and learning. The teens led campers in explorations through the compost pile, planting seeds, harvesting veggies, and creating kale smoothies and tomato salsa, fresh from the garden.
In response to Covid-19, we are approaching funding and hosting apprentices differently this year. We are committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for everyone involved. Additionally, it is imperative to support young people of color and fulfill our mission of growing a movement for food justice and community wellness.
We are thrilled that this year’s apprenticeship will continue to offer both an educator track and a gardening/farming track. The program design includes Circles, program-specific goal-setting, crop-planning workshops, mid-season self-reflective check-ins, post-program evaluations, lesson plan workshops, financial literacy, resume writing workshops, and future goal-setting. This helps participants to expand the breadth of work they may have done with us in the past and to consider diverse professional options. We hope to extend this program through increased funding in future years. As youth continue to work with us, the hope is that they can help design the future of our teen apprenticeship programs.
This year’s cohort of teens was hired through the Mayor Torrance Harvey Summer Youth Employment Initiative, administered by Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh. Each morning, all of the Newburgh teens in Mayor Torrance Harvey Summer Youth Employment Initiative arrive at Boys & Girls Club before departing for different work sites according to their placement. During the summer of 2019, LtL team members Sam and Serena and the Newburgh teens who chose the gardener track worked in six Newburgh gardens. This year, due to decreased access to Newburgh school gardens because of school closures, Sam and Serena as well as the five incredible Newburgh teens are growing tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, basil, flowers, and more at the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh on Tuesdays and working in NUFFI’s Downing Park Urban Farm on Wednesdays. All of the produce grown goes directly to local food access initiatives in Newburgh. The teens are also participating in learning sessions during SproutEd Summer Learning, our week-long virtual summer learning program for our student community. Two of the teens contributed to the sessions and led part of one!
This is a snapshot of what garden education and youth apprenticeship looks like during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of the work done during this apprenticeship at both the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh and Downing Park Urban Farm adheres to strict physical distancing rules and regulations, and we are taking sanitation seriously. Despite the challenges, the teens are learning and growing just as much this year as they did last year. We are thrilled to be able to work with such committed community partners and of course, the wonderful, hard-working, knowledgeable, thoughtful, and fun teens.
Thank you so much for all of your support!
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Sam, Serena, and the crew at Downing Park Urban Farm, where they have been helping growing and harvesting fresh produce for donation to local food access programs in Newburgh.
Marcelis and August transplanting tomatoes into a newly cleared bed at Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh.
The team clearing the overgrown beds at Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh, and planting tomatoes, kale, basil, and lots of flowers.