How Students Feel About Their School Garden

In Their Words…

I love the school garden and I love to smell the flowers. I love when it's really nice, sunny and warm. My favorite part is when we got to go plant some plants. My friends really have so much fun. I loved when we got to eat from the garden itself. I wish I could be there almost every single minute or hour. I love to see all of the insects like butterflies, moths, and worms. My favorite edible plant in the garden is maybe a tomato. -Abeni, 2nd grader

The garden is a wonderful place and I feel so relaxed. I also love the beautiful green plants in the garden. The garden is very calm and peaceful. My favorite plant is the mint. Yesterday we released ladybugs in the garden. Do you know why? Because ladybugs eat aphids and aphids hurt our garden. So it's important to have ladybugs in our garden. I hope you love the garden as much as I do. - Charlotte, 2nd grader

Every time I go to the garden I look at the strawberries to see if they have grown. I like seeing the flowers and trying new stuff. It's fun to play games and do things in the garden! Once we did an activity where some kids would water the plants and others would make a map of the garden. -Emilia, 2nd grader

My favorite garden animals are ladybugs, bees , butterflies , caterpillars and some helpful insects. I also like to explore the garden and it makes me feel calm and I love going there on sunny days and looking at it on rainy days. - Alex, 2nd grader

I feel happy about the school garden because the garden gives me food. The garden also makes me feel calm. My favorite thing about the garden is bugs they're just so interesting to learn. And I also really like plants. Plants give us food too. Without any plants we would probably be dead because plants breathe in air that we don’t breathe and they breathe out air that we breathe. This is facts about our garden. - Henri, 2nd grader

Garden Poem by Jennie:

I love the school garden. I love The breeze blowing in the trees. I love the flowers blooming. I love the sour sweet and saltiness of the food . In the fall the leaves are full of colors. I love the sight. In the winter the trees seem magical! In Spring the trees are full of fruit. In Summer the leaves are as green as peas. And it really pleases me . I love the adventures we can have. And all the bugs living in the grass. I love watering and caring for the plants. kale and chives, mushrooms too. I love it all don't you ?

Land To Learn shifts to Shared Leadership

Dear Community Partners,

We are writing to share some exciting news! Land to Learn is transitioning to a shared leadership model, which we’re confident will make our organization better able to serve our communities. Throughout this process we will also be investing time and energy into improving our programming in service of our mission: to grow a movement for food justice and community wellness through garden-based education. Land to Learn deeply honors the opportunity to be part of your community, and looks forward to our continued partnership. 

Staff Journeys:

This past June, three members of staff moved on to grow their careers in new directions. Hans Hageman will be founding his own nonprofit focused on farmer wellness, training for BIPOC teens interested in agriculture and food entrepreneurship, and digital marketing for BIPOC farmers and food entrepreneurs. Air Rhodes accepted a new position as Deputy Director of the Midcoast Conservancy, where they desire to “raise their voice to protect nature and play a consequential role to ensure that lands and waters and all the living beings that rely on them have long, sustainable lives.” Diana Cowdery is fully committing to their naturally-grown, specialty cut flower operation, which provides fresh seasonal bouquets to the Mid-Hudson Valley without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. You can still find Diana at the Beacon Farmers Market!

Opportunity for Shifting to Shared Leadership:

Land to Learn has been on a path toward shared leadership for several years. The significant changes among our team outlined above, along with the lingering uncertainty of COVID-19 and its impacts on our school communities, helped us to identify that the opportunity is now: to root-down and adjust our leadership structure to create a more democratic workspace that is in alignment with our practices and values.

Shared leadership--as opposed to a traditional hierarchical model--involves empowering staff members to assume leadership roles in their areas of expertise. In addition, this model cultivates personal and organizational growth while also creating more space for feedback and participation from the communities in which we work. One of the prerequisites for a successful transition to shared leadership is an up-front investment of time. We believe that this will embolden our staff and participating community members, and ultimately strengthen our services for years to come. 

A New Year, A New Way:

Organizational leadership transformation takes commitment. In order to make time and space for this work, our programs will operate differently during the 2021-2022 academic year. We will continue to provide quality garden-based education by offering teacher resources, virtual connections, and some outdoor lessons. We also look forward to continuing our community partnerships while nourishing our ability to become an even more values-aligned organization. 

Thank you for being in community with us! We recognize and appreciate all that you are doing to keep our shared communities engaged and safe through the pandemic.

Peace and Peas,

   The LtL team

Land to Learn, 2020 in review

Land to Learn is doing essential work despite the hurdles of 2020. Here’s some of what we have done so far in this year to support our students & community:

Modified core programming:

• From January to March we taught weekly or bi-weekly lessons as usual to 2,000 students in gardens and classrooms, and were with the kids eager to plant their spring veggies. When the pandemic arrived we remodeled SproutEd (our K-2school garden education program) into an online and in-person hybrid learning platform, offering our lessons online all spring. This fall we’re teaching in person where we can, and online to students who are learning virtually. 

• Land to Learn’s education team created a YouTube channel and have been stocking it full of fun, educational, and activity-rich video lessons (planting, recipes, bugs!). Based on our classroom lessons, the videos are available to all students who want to expand their garden learning beyond the classroom.

• In response to parents concerned about their kids stuck at home we offered a summer “edutainment” program for the first time, with students attending garden time virtually. 

• We created and distributed more than 200 kits with supplies and instructions so that our students and their families could garden at home.

Emergency support:

• Land to Learn staff planted 9 of our school gardens with nutritious crops to help feed the community. We have been key participants in emergency food systems planning and distribution in Beacon, Newburgh, and Kingston, partnering with many excellent local organizations to make sure hundreds of families in each city get fed each week.

• In collaboration with the Beacon Farmers’ Market, we distributed to SNAP-eligible market customers a “bonus bag” of produce grown in our gardens. They included recipe cards suggesting ways to prepare the included food. 

Program Enrichment: 

• Our team trained the Washingtonville school district to teach their own Land to Learn classes, with our curriculum, in their new school garden.Any school or teaching pod can now purchase similar training and curriculum through our Toolshed program. 

• Partnering with Glynwood, we distributed wooden garden boxes, filled with good soil, to families and partners interested in larger gardening endeavors. 

• We completed another successful autumn of afterschool garden programming at the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh.

• From the fall of 2018 until the pandemic, Land to Learn’s Executive Director, Hans Hageman, built a garden and led weekly programming to teens at the Goshen Secure Center, which houses incarcerated youth. 

• Land to Learn and another regional nonprofit, The Felix Organization, partnered so that local foster youth in residential care could build and continue to grow in a learning garden at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy at St. Christopher’s. LtL’s staff taught garden lessons there over the summer.

• We continued our teen apprenticeship program, hosting six local teens in person over the summer. Our apprentices learned professional and gardening skills while helping to implement our summer gardening programs. These apprenticeships were made possible in partnership with eight programs!

Organizational Enrichment: 

• Through our work with the Beacon Farmer’s Market, the Mediation Center of Dutchess County, the Hudson Valley Food Systems Coalition, and other local collaborators we have been supporting and learning in the anti-racist leadership and justice movements.

• In response to colleges in crisis-management, we also had the great opportunity to host 10 distanced Princeton University interns over the summer, and into the fall. Our telecommuting interns learned the inner workings of a nonprofit, and assisted us in all aspects of our behind-the-scenes work, from digital systems to marketing.

• In partnership with Mediation Center of Dutchess County, and in commitment to undo the colonial systems of oppression, two of our staff have been trained in circle practice.

We’re going to keep showing up to ensure Hudson Valley children continue to learn about the wonders of the garden through lessons that are as experiential as possible, and pivoting and advocating for their needs when the systems of the world try to get in the way of their education. Thank you for your help!

Internet Access is Education Justice

The internet is more important than ever: It is how almost all of us are connecting with our friends and family, it is how most of us are getting our work done - And for students about to return to school, the internet will be the portal to learning. In households without good internet access or enough internet-connected devices, the door to school will be closed for many kids. Internet access is an educational justice issue.

The communities Land to Learn serves are primarily students of color who come from economically-disadvantaged families, and their families have been hit hard by both the health and the economic effects of the pandemic. Newburgh, where the majority of our students live, faced not only per-capita infection rates five times higher than New York City’s at the two cities’ respective peaks but also soaring unemployment that has exacerbated the city’s already-existing poverty. Meanwhile, we watched students struggle to transition to virtual learning, as their parents worked hard to adapt to being homeschool teachers as they fought to keep their job or seek out a new one.

Land to Learn learned to shift our programming to deliver our curriculum virtually, creating videos and joining virtual classrooms to deliver our garden lessons, teaching students to connect with nature and gardening in safe and accessible ways (even if they are just in their own kitchen or backyard). Last spring, teachers gave our educators very supportive feedback about how much students appreciated Land to Learn’s efforts to connect with students online and eased the burden of remote learning. We will be learning how to offer lessons to in-person and online students this fall.

However, many of our students have still struggled with access to remote learning. The pandemic has highlighted inequalities in access to technology and educational resources. In Newburgh, for instance, only 62% of households have high-speed internet and an internet-connective device. Given that this fall will involve online learning in various forms, our students need support to ensure that they are able to keep up with their classmates.

What are each of the districts in which we work doing to help students connect online? 

The Newburgh school district is starting with online-only instruction, with plans to phase into a hybrid of in-person and online learning over the course of the semester. The district is seeking funding for internet-connected devices for students in grades pre-K through 1st grade (i.e. the majority of our students). They hope to be able to purchase and distribute these a.s.a.p. but aren’t yet certain on the timeline. All students in grades 2-12 who need a device can receive a device from the district. All families who need a WiFi hotspot can have one per household.

Newburgh student internet access help: 

• Call the District’s Technology department: 845-568-6542

• Submit a helpdesk request here

The Kingston school district will also be starting entirely online, and after 5 weeks (health permitting) will shift to a hybrid online/in-person model championing in-person learning for younger students (including Land to Learn’s K-2nd grade students) and those with special learning needs. The district will make Chromebooks available to any students who need them. For families on the Free/Reduced Lunch Program in need of internet service, Spectrum is offering assistance: info here, or go to SpectrumInternetAssist.com.

Kingston student internet access help: 

• Call tech support: 845-943-3020, Option 1

The Beacon school district is doing a hybrid in-person and online education system, including the option for all families to opt into online-only instruction. The district had already purchased internet-connected devices for each student prior to Covid19. There are wifi hotspots available to students outside of the High School building, and more options are available if you contact the district.

Beacon student internet access help: 

• Call the Superintendent’s office: 845-838-6900 x2033

• Email the IT help desk: help@beaconk12.org 

The Garrison school district is small enough to be returning entirely in person this fall, with the option to opt for online-only education. As nearly 100% of Garrison households have home broadband access and devices, internet connectivity is less of a concern for students’ outcomes there. 

Garrison student learning help: 

• Contact Ms. Dusti Callo, Secretary to the Superintendent/District Clerk: 845-424-3689 Ext. 224 or dcallo@gufs.org

What can you do to help affect change on this issue?

• 1) Direct any sources of major funding you may know of to the Newburgh school district to purchase internet-connectable learning devices (like Chromebooks) for all pre-K through 1st grade students. This is time-sensitive.

• 2) Support municipal broadband efforts 

  • While wifi hotspots can serve as bandaids, municipal broadband is the sustainable community-level solution to providing internet access as part of our essential public infrastructure, like roads and water pipes. Contact your local City Council representative and/or Mutual Aid group to learn what efforts are being made in your community regarding municipal broadband - Nearly every spot in the Hudson Valley is making strides towards this goal either through grassroots efforts or official channels.

• 3) Support the proposed federal bill H.R. 865, aka the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act

  • This bill is crucial to allocate federal funds to states for school improvements and expand school access to high-speed broadband to ensure our students can connect to the reliable and high-speed Internet access they need for digital learning. H. R. 865 would also ensure no teachers are laid off. This bill would be hugely beneficial to our district, and help to make sure that many students are not left behind in the midst of this crisis.

  • Contact your representative today and encourage them to support HR 865 and pass it a.s.a.p.! (Find your federal House of Representatives member here.)

We are glad to live in a region where so many people are working together to help each other out, and help our kids thrive as best we can. Thank you for being a partner in supporting children’s education and health throughout this unprecedented time! 

Diversity, Equity, and Justice: Explaining Racism to your Children through Garden-Based Education

“I have a connection: seeds have different kinds like we learned about people are different. That’s called diversity.” 

- Janali, a 1st grader at J.V. Forrestal Elementary in Beacon, NY 2018

Have you wondered how to talk to your kids about race and racism? Confronting racism in the United States is an immensely daunting task, but racism must be challenged rather than ignored. Not only must we educate ourselves about the struggles of being Black in the United States, but we must also educate our children so that they can develop actively anti-racist attitudes and work towards a future full of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Anti-racist training begins at home, and it is never too early to start talking about racism (because the world around your children will be giving them messages about it that they will pick up regardless of whether we talk to them about it)--but how do we explain racism to our kids in a way that they can understand? Try these easily digestible garden analogies:

Diversity

From fruit and vegetable plants to worms and insects, the most successful gardens are full of diversity! Each plant and animal has its own unique role to help the garden’s ecosystem not only survive, but also thrive. For example, flowers add beauty to gardens, but they also deter pests and attract pollinators; these pollinators in turn transport pollen, helping the plants produce seeds, fruits, and more plants! 

Humans are like plants: we come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and we are all beautiful, unique, and have a right to exist! Each of the 7.8 billion humans in the garden we call Earth has their own role, and our diversity not only adds to the beauty of our human society, but because we all rely on one another, it helps us all be stronger together. Some people do not recognize the value of this diversity though, and they treat some humans with less respect than they treat others. This led to the creation of the Movement for Black Lives, which aims to help people see the inequalities in our society and achieve justice for Black people.

Inequality, Equality, Equity, & Justice

Gardener Gabby has a garden that is full of cucumbers and basil, but this garden has a wall that separates the two types of plants. This wall unfortunately blocks sunlight from reaching the cucumbers, but it does not block sunlight from reaching the basil plants. Because both types of plants need sunlight to grow and thrive, this wall creates INEQUALITY.

Gardener Gabby notices this inequality and decides to install special lights that mimic the sun in her garden to help her plants out. She decides to place them equally around the garden so that the basil plants and the cucumber plants have three lights each. This is EQUALITY, since both types of plants are receiving the same equipment.

However, the cucumbers are still not receiving enough sunlight to survive. The three lights that belong to the cucumbers definitely help, but the wall still prevents them from having any natural sunlight. On the other hand, the basil plants are now basking in the light from both the sun and their own three lights. Thus, Gardener Gabby decides to move all of the lights to the cucumbers’ side of the wall. Now, because of Gardener Gabby's actions, both the basil plants and the cucumber plants are receiving the same amount of light. This is EQUITY because Gardener Gabby’s equipment has helped level out the inequality in the amount of light the cucumbers and basil are getting.

There is another, better way to solve this inequality though. Rather than constantly trying to compensate for inequalities by adding in lights that she will continually have to recharge and repair, Gardener Gabby can target the root cause of the inequality between the cucumbers and basil by tearing down the wall that caused the unequal amounts of sunlight in the first place! This is an extremely difficult task though. The wall is strong and large, but with a lot of hard work and dedication, Gardener Gabby will be able to tear it down so that the cucumber and basil plants finally receive the same amount of sunlight! This is JUSTICE. Achieving justice in all aspects of life is the ultimate goal of the Movement for Black Lives, and it is something that we (and our children) should all work towards throughout our lifetimes!

Start By Talking

Although these garden analogies are extremely simplified and only cover a select few aspects of the Movement for Black Lives, they provide an accessible way for you to introduce the important topics of diversity, justice, and the reality of race in America to your children at a young age. These conversations with your children will be difficult and uncomfortable. That is part of the work of combating racism and injustice. You may find that children have a natural sense of justice, which can inspire us grown-ups to do our part. It is our hope that explaining societal injustices through simple analogies with topics your children understand, such as gardening, may make these conversations easier. Together, by educating our children, we can train an entire generation of anti-racist leaders who will together dismantle racism and other injustices in America.

If you would like to see more blogs like this and support our mission of achieving food justice and community wellness through garden-based education, please consider donating at: https://www.landtolearn.org/donate. Thank you!

NONPROFIT RESILIENCY DURING COVID-19: LAND TO LEARN AND THE FELIX ORGANIZATION COLLABORATE

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.’”

To support our work, please Click here to donate to Land to Learn! We are incredibly appreciative of all the help and assistance from our Land To Learn community of friends and supporters!

Tell Congress To Do More for Kids, Schools & Farmers

We know you care about kids, education, and agriculture. We’re hoping you can take a few minutes of your day to make a big difference - If we work together, we can get free lunches for all public school kids, free early child care, and more! 

Our thanks to the National Farm to School Network for all this info!

Last week, the US Senate released their latest set of COVID-19 relief bills, a $1 trillion bundle of legislation covering business aid, money for schools and agricultural aid funding. Included in the legislation is a potential $70 billion for K-12 schools ($46 billion is reserved for costs of reopening in-person school this fall), and $20 billion in agricultural aid funding with no additional guardrails to correct the shortcomings of USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (see here and here). While we’re glad that Senators have recognized that our schools are in urgent need of critical funding support, this proposed legislation from the Senate falls far short of targeting the actual needs of our kids, educators, farmers, and school nutrition professionals. 

Land to Learn, in particular, has seen how remote learning has been failing our students, who have been hit hard by the massive economic, health, and technological inequities highlighted by this pandemic. If and when schools reopen, it is Congress’ responsibility to support our schools and our teachers, and ensure our kids have access to free and healthy meal options while at school. 

We need targeted policies that match the scale of this current crisis. Specifically, we need policies that directly support Black, Indigenous and small scale farmers, early care and education providers, and school food service operators – They all play a critical role in feeding and caring for our communities, and especially so during this pandemic. 

That’s why, as the Senate and House work out the details of this next round of COVID-19 relief, we’re calling on policymakers to: 

• Fully fund universal free school meals, informed by these values, this next school year. 

• Provide immediate funding support to early child care and education centers.

• Create a set-aside small business relief fund for farmers of color.

• Waive the non-federal match requirement for local food and agriculture programs, including the USDA Farm to School Grant Program, for the next two years.

We are pleased to see some of these bold solutions already coming from the champions in the House and Senate. Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) yesterday introduced the Small Farm to School Act, a bipartisan bill to pilot increased reimbursement for local procurement. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has included targeted support for Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color who grow vegetables and fruit, and a waiver of the non-federal match for USDA Farm to School Grants, in his Local Food Assistance and Resilient Markets Act. Bills like these should be leading this round of COVID-19 relief from Congress. 

It’s essential that your Senators hear from you about what your community needs right now to support kids, educators, farmers and school nutrition professionals. This legislation is expected to move quickly, so don’t wait - take this quick 5 minute action right now!

TAKE ACTION

Your voice is needed! Call your Senators TODAY and tell them you want to see more support for kids, farmers and educators in your community. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

• Step 2: Ask to be connected with your Senator's office. Not sure who your Senators are? (You have 2!) Give the Switchboard your zip code and they can connect you to the correct offices. Or, look up your Senators here and give them a call directly. 

• Step 3: Leave a message for your Senators like this: 

Hi, my name is ____ and I’m a constituent and a ____ [parent, teacher, gardener, farmer, etc.]. I’d like to ask [your Senator’s name] to advocate for the following things to be included in next round of COVID-19 relief legislation:

• Fully fund universal free school meals this next school year. 

• Provide immediate funding support to early child care and education centers.

• Create a set-aside small business relief fund for farmers of color.

• Support the Local FARM Act (S. 4140).

• These issues matter to me because ____ [tell your story!]. Thank you!

• Step 4: Take one minute to sign-on to the National Farm to School Network’s petition on the COVID-19 Federal Policy Platform. They have included more measures that can be passed by the Senate to ensure immediate relief for the people most impacted by this pandemic, while building towards longer-term policies that strengthen a resilient, just food system. 

Taking action right now, while this relief bill is in discussion, is especially crucial. Make your calls, sign-on to the platform, and forward this message to a friend. THANK YOU for taking a few minutes out of your day to make your voice heard.

LAND TO LEARN HOSTS FIVE NEWBURGH TEENS FOR NEWBURGH GARDEN AND EDUCATION APPRENTICESHIP

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!

To donate to Land to Learn, please Click here! 

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.