The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Land to Learn, and most other nonprofits, to shift many aspects of their organization and operations to continue promoting its mission. Despite the stressors Covid-19 has put on nonprofits, we are proud to announce that Land to Learn (“LtL”) and two local nonprofits, The Felix Organization, and the Young Women's Leadership Academy at St. Christopher’s, Inc., have formed a partnership in which youth in residential care are building, learning, and working in a new garden on St. Christopher’s New Windsor campus. Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming has generously donated raised beds, compost, seedlings, and seeds to help jumpstart the project. We are proud and honored to work in partnership with these like-minded organizations to demonstrate nonprofit resiliency during such unprecedented and challenging times.
Since August 2017, The Felix Organization, a group formed to enrich the lives of teens growing up in the foster care system, has partnered with St. Christopher's, Inc. and Good Shepherds Services, to host the Camp Felix Teen Girls Getaway. This program, a female empowerment camp, is typically held in a facility called Club Getaway in the Berkshire Mountains of Connecticut. Throughout this two-week-long summer program, youth ages 13 to 16 learn about leadership, personal growth, self-esteem, interpersonal skills, and gain knowledge of healthy lifestyles and an appreciation for nature.
When COVID-19 disrupted their annual summer camp for foster teens, the staff at The Felix Organization came up with the idea of creating a garden on St. Christopher’s residential campus in New Windsor, NY, to bring recreation and education to the teen girls living there. Land to Learn is excited to provide a summer-long garden build and instruction program to teens in residential care at St. Christopher’s Inc., which hosts approximately 15 residents of the organization’s Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
With the support and assistance of our Land to Learn educators, the youth participants are co-creating the garden at their residential campus. They have been engaged in building the garden, mapping out the planting plan, and caring for the crops, and are excited to beautify the space and cook with the harvest. American Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer said: “If you give a hungry man food, he will eat it. [But] if you give him land, he will grow his own food”. The teens are doing just that: taking ownership of—and joy in—working in their new garden as they develop valuable food-growing, self-sufficiency, and teamwork skills.
Hans Hageman, the African-American executive director of Land To Learn, states, “Now, more than ever, we need to develop our young people’s connection to nature. They must learn where their food comes from and take control of how they eat. This garden will teach them lessons in self-sufficiency and support their mental health. I dream that one day they will see themselves as stewards of the land. Growing up surrounded by Harlem’s concrete, my parents made sure I remembered Malcolm X’s quote that ‘Land is the basis of all independence.’”
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