The Intervale Center’s
Healthy City Youth Farm
Healthy City, a program of the Intervale Center from 2002-2009, was designed in response to the community’s need for job- and life-skills training for at-risk youths; the need for better education about food in our local schools; and the needs of low-income families for fresh produce. Healthy City met these needs during its seven years with the Intervale Center by creating a community of teens and adults dedicated to growing healthy food for themselves, their families, and their community.
A New Organizational Home for Healthy City
On November 2, 2009, the Healthy City program will relocate from the Intervale Center to its new organizational home with Friends of Burlington Gardens. Friends of Burlington Gardens and the Intervale Center feel that the transition represents a unique opportunity to broaden current farm to school programming to impact more students at more schools over more grade levels.
Both organizations agree that the new growth is best facilitated by taking the strong foundations of the Healthy City program in the Intervale and combining them with Friends of Burlington Gardens long history in working throughout the City and directly at schools to promote gardening and food production. The new program will become the Healthy City Youth Initiative.
In spring 2010, a permanent site for the Healthy City Youth Farm will be created at Hunt Middle School in Burlington’s New North End. The Youth Farm plan includes multiple raised beds where Burlington students and community volunteers can work side-by-side growing fresh organic produce for summer lunch programs and fall salad bars.
The Burlington School Garden Council, which supports food gardening efforts at six Burlington elementary schools, two middle schools, and Burlington High School will also become part of the expanded program. To learn more about the Healthy City Youth Initiative and how you can support the transition, please visit the Friends of Burlington Gardens.
The Intervale Center is excited about the growth potential for Healthy City programming with Friends of Burlington Gardens and the ongoing partnership that will keep the Healthy City Youth Initiative connected to Intervale farms and programs.
Friends of Burlington Gardens was founded in 2001 to encourage, support, and sustain a dynamic network of community, school, and neighborhood gardens in the city of Burlington and across Vermont.
New Contact Information for the Healthy City Youth Initiative:
Friends of Burlington Gardens
180 Flynn Avenue, Studio 3
PO Box 4504
Burlington, VT 05406-4504
802-861-4769
Jennifer McGowan, Program Director
Jenn@burlingtongardens.org
Jim Flint, Executive Director
Jimf@burlingtongardens.org
Looking Back: Celebrating the 2009 Season
The Healthy City program was designed in response to the community’s need for job- and life-skills training for at-risk youth; the need for better education about food in our local schools; and the needs of low-income families for fresh produce. In 2009, Healthy City worked toward meeting these needs through the Intervale Gleaning Project, the Healthy City Youth Farm, and partnership in the Burlington School Food Project.
The Healthy City Youth Farm is an eight-week summer program where teens ages 13-16 are paid to grow and market organic produce and to attend workshops to prepare themselves for future employment. This season, 15 Healthy City crew members worked over 1,600 hours on seven Intervale farms. They pulled garlic, weeded carrots, and planted strawberries. They also tended their plot of green beans for the Burlington School District and maintained the Abenaki Traditional Garden.
The hard working crew members were integral to the success of gleaning by harvesting 10,000 pounds of surplus produce to the benefit of community members in need. They spent many more hours in the kitchen turning the salvaged produce into healthy meals.
Through workshops and day-to-day encouragement of staff and peers, the students grew tremendously while making strides toward a more just community. They laughed, played games, fed their neighbors, and learned the value of hard work. They enjoyed field trips and developed passion for gardening. In the words of one student, “knowing that I am doing something for the community makes my life complete.”
- 2009 Healthy City Wrap-up
- Check out Eva Sollberger's video about Healthy City here!
- View a copy of our latest newsletter here!
- Read a Burlington Free Press article about a local school's work day fundraiser at Healthy City Youth Farm here!
- 2009 Healthy City Gleaning Presentation
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM 2002-200
- 2007 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award to honor innovative work to fight hunger
- 2007 Sprit of the Community Award by area alternative high school C.P. Stepping Stones for “providing a place where students who have been marginalized can find their identity and do meaningful work.”
- 2007 Best in Show at Junior Iron Chef VT
- 2008 Best Use of Local Ingredients at Junior Iron Chef VT
- Check out Eva Sollberger's video here
YOUTH FARM
For eight weeks every summer from 2002 to 2009, up to 25 teens were paid a stipend to grow and market produce while attending workshops to prepare them for future employment. Under this model Youth Farm participants spent 25 hours per week on Intervale farms and attended classes, workshops, and field trips organized around weekly themes. Themes ranged from farm ecology and sustainable agriculture to business and marketing, community service, and nutrition and health. Field trips exposed participating youth to the operations of other farms, local grocery stores, social service agencies, and other Intervale Center programs. Regular cooking classes rounded out the program and in 2009 included a student intern from the New England Culinary Institute.
Healthy City Youth Farm proved to be highly successful at engaging, mentoring, educating and motivating youth at many different levels. As the growing season matured, so did the youth, having learned the fundamentals of holding a job, showing up for work on time, and being rewarded with wages. They developed a commitment to the program, their teachers, the Intervale community of farmers, and, most importantly, to each other. They also gained working knowledge of sustainable agriculture and its benefits to the local food system and their own health.
HEALTHY CITY GLEANING PROJECT
The Intervale Gleaning Project, Healthy City teens and volunteers worked side by side to harvest surplus produce from neighboring farms and distribute it to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and 14 other nonprofits serving families in need. The project collected and distributed 30,000 pounds of produce in 2007 and an additional 25,000 pounds in 2008.
BURLINGTON SCHOOL FOOD PROJECT
The Burlington School Food Project connects school kids and families with nearby farms by bringing fresh produce to cafeterias and hands-on agricultural education to students. Through this collaborative effort with Burlington Legacy Project, Burlington School District, City Market/Onion River Co-op, Food Works, NOFA-VT, Shelburne Farms, Sustainable Schools Project, University of Vermont and Vermont FEED, Healthy City was at one time one of the largest independent suppliers of produce to Burlington School District cafeterias. Healthy City youth and staff, along with staff from partner organizations, also led educational field trips attended by more than 500 elementary and middle-school students annually.