Healthy City
Growing Healthy Youth and Crops
Twenty five teens spend their summer planting, weeding, harvesting, marketing and processing vegetables. Here, Yuol, Keshia and Nichole plant zucchini seedlings on orientation day for the youth farm.
Farm Markets by Youth
Healthy City youth develop prices, signage and displays for markets in Burlington twice each week. Here Mizpa and Cody set up their wares at the New North End Market.
Fresh Produce for the Burlington Schools
Keisha and Chelsea deliver a mountain of chard to school cafeterias as part of Healthy City's contract with the Burlington school district.
Gleaning Produce to Share
Mike Delage, on the right, manages Healthy City’s gleaning program. Volunteers and Healthy City youth gather vegetables that are left behind in a field after a harvest. Here, from left to right, Jonathan Williams of the HC crew, Mary Andres, a member worker from City Market food co-op, John Stanley, a HC volunteer, and Rebecca Deso of the HC work crew have collected squash that will be donated to low income Burlington residents.
Local Food Year Round
Robbie McKay, an intern from Middlebury College, and Ivah from Healthy City turn basil into quarts of pesto for the Burlington school district to use throughout the school year. Robbie comments, “I relished the day-to-day, slow unfolding of the 20 or so young people I worked with. The summer left me not discouraged, but driven to become a better teacher and mentor. Healthy City's an extremely fertile place to work and grow in.”