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What
We Do
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| The Youth Farm & Market
Project is about youth gardening, cooking, nutrition, and entrepreneurship. It’s about youth connecting to their food and
the environment – YFMP youth currently farm 9 garden sites – over 2 acres
of urban land in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It’s about a new way of bringing quality healthy
food to urban neighborhoods and exploring culinary traditions from around the
world – cooking and distributing over 4,000
pounds of fresh, local produce. It’s
about community involvement
– engaging volunteers
in over 1,755 hours of service to
their community. Finally, Youth Farm
& Market Project is about quality year round youth programs and employment
– YFMP works with over 300 youth
ages 9-13, and employs 25 teens as both interns during the
school year and youth staff during the summer program. |
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Urban Agriculture
- YFMP operates urban gardens in three neighborhoods in the Twin Cities –
Lyndale and Powderhorn in Minneapolis
and the West Side of St. Paul. We engage
youth in running gardens to teach about where their food comes from, how to
grow it, and how they can start to impact their local food system. |
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Youth
Organizing
- At YFMP, we see youth as
untapped resources in our communities.
Instead of trying to “fix” their deficits, we form strong, long term
relationships with youth to utilize their assets for their neighborhoods. Project LEAD provides paid
internships and summer employment for 25 older youth (ages 14-18) to develop
power and public leadership in their neighborhood, apply these skills through their
work on producing and distributing local produce, as well as supervise, mentor
and create strong relationships with younger youth in our school year and
summer program. |
Photo by Anne Van Avery |
Cultural
Nutrition
- As we become more and more aware of the dangers of childhood obesity, YFMP work with youth
leaders to learn how to grow, cook, and distribute foods traditionally found in
South and Central American, Asian, African, African American, European American
and other cultures. The goal of the Cultural
Farming and Nutrition Program is to provide support for new immigrants’ traditional
diets, and to increase both the capacity and cultural confidence necessary for immigrant youth to grow, eat, cook, and
provide these foods to others in their communities. We engage parents and community members to
bring the knowledge of recent immigrants and different cultural perspectives to
our kitchens, lunches, and gardens. |
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