The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

each week two of our Lincoln youth interns will introduce themselves

Hello, my name is Kadeem and I’m 18 years old from Dorchester. I am a senior at Wayland High School through Boston’s METCO program and I play football and run track. This is my second summer working at the Food Project. Now as a Lincoln intern, I hope that working on the farm will expand my knowledge about agriculture. During the Summer Youth Program last year I learned how to be a better farmer by weeding and harvesting. My favorite vegetable is broccoli.

Hello, my name is Amanda Chin. I’m 17 years old and just graduated from Arlington High School. This fall I’m heading over to the University of Vermont. I participated in the Summer Youth Program in 2009 and now am working as a Lincoln intern. For this summer I love being part of The Food Project community and working on the land as well as learning more about the food we eat and harvest. My favorite vegetables are green beans.

Editor's note: North Shore Fellow Mike Syversen sends the following update on how things stand at the beginning of our Summer Youth Program

Hi everyone,
This is an exciting week for us up here on the North Shore. Our summer youth program started this Wednesday. Thirty youth ages 14-17 are starting their work here where they will be farming, participating in farmer’s markets, learning about the food system, social justice, and community development, gaining work experience, and much more. The crew leaders, assistant crew leaders, and staff who lead the youth have created a program that is bound to have an impact on the lives of the youth. We’re excited for the joys and challenges that the youth will bring. We know they will have a great experience!

This Monday was our third Lynn CSA pickup day, and everything on that front is running smoothly. It is great to see the members each week and know the food we provide them with has been harvested from our farm that same day. Getting to chat with the members about the produce and what they do with it is a highlight of the week.

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Editor's note: Here's an account from intern Keely Curliss on an event our interns ran for City Year.

interns and youth from City Year trainingTwo weeks ago I arrived for the first time at the Huntington St. YMCA at the early hour of 8am. I was happy to find the other 16 interns that I currently work with already practicing away at the presentations we had been working to develop since the fall. I quickly found my place in the group of ‘openers’ who were working on the introduction presentation that we would be delivering in a short hour. John looking exhausted from all the energy and time he had put into this day gathered us around, “Are you guys ready?” he asked. We all responded in our groggy “I definitely didn’t get enough sleep” way, that in fact we were ready and excited to be the first youth to run the curriculum aspect of City Year’s day.

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chiliA friend of TFP recently passed on the URL to the facinating new blog FED UP WITH LUNCH: THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROJECT. "Mrs. Q", an anonymous teacher in a US school, eats the lunch from her cafeteria every day and writes a post about it, complete with a photo. In addition to the lunch profiles, recent posts have included a FAQ on the project and an open thread that's pulled in some interesting perspectives from other school lunches across the country. Well worth a vist if you'd like to see for yourself what American children are faced with on a daily basis.

Our annual Winter Institute came and went last week. Following is Institute organizer Greg Gale's summary. If you were interested but couldn't make it this winter, it's not too early to start thinking about attending the Summer Institute, coming up August 4th - 6th.

13 eager souls participated in this year's Winter Institute. They came from as close as Boston and as far away as NJ, NYC, VT, and ME. Most of them are running existing programs and some were getting ready to start new ones. All of them shared a deep passion for engaging youth in sustainable food systems work.

Their favorite part, imagine, was being with TFP teens talking, building raised bed containers, sorting seeds and doing a social justice workshop that required them to scramble across the floor grabbing candy in the ‘Scramble for Wealth and Power’. In between these experiential moments, we did some powerful reflection and learning about the theory and practice that drives TFP work.

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Gabriella Spitzer, an intern this past summer in Roxbury, wrote us recently. Here's what she said about TFP's impact on her experience at college (reprinted with permission!)

I wanted to tell you again how grateful I am to The Food Project. I am now at Barnard College, and I use so much that I learned from The Food Project all the time. I can and do talk about all the different ways oppression hurts people in all kinds of contexts. I'm so glad I came to college with the framework for thinking about oppression that I learned at the Food Project. I'm thinking seriously about majoring in Environmental Policy, and that comes directly from the work I did at The Food Project. I volunteered at a preschool this past semester, and I will work at a different preschool this coming semester because I know that I can't spend four years only dedicated to me -- I need to serve my community always, no matter what else I am doing. Thank you. I came to college prepared in part because of The Food Project.

 that happen to mention us!

1. Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl of the Center for a Livable Future launches a passionate defense of school garden programs. It's news to me that school gardens need defending from anything but challenged school budgets, but apparently the movement is becoming big enough to spawn a backlash. Fortunately, "then they fight you" is step 3 of 4 according to Gandhi!
2. One of my personal heroes, Bryant Terry, includes us on his short list of "organizations. . .doing particularly effective work right now" in a brief interview with change.org.
3. Our School at Blair Grocery is working to bring food security and rebuild community in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. And, they're hoping to use a couple of our books to help anchor a new Urban Farming Library. 

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Are you excited about applying for the 2010 Summer Youth Program, but aren't sure where to get access to a computer and printer to fill out and print your application? You're in luck: as of last week, each of our offices has a workstation reserved for use by SYP applicants. 

Before coming in, you'll need to review the application instructions and assemble your materials. You may want to copy and paste your essays, which would be easiest to do from a webmail account (yahoo, gmail, etc.). Finally, please call ahead to make sure there will be someone in the office at the time you're planning to come.

As always, any and all questions about the Summer Youth Program and the application process can be directed to one of the following folks:

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Register now for...

The Food Project Institute

Winter Institute - February 4-6, 2010

Lincoln and Boston, MA

Download Registration Form (PDF)
Many people come to The Food Project during the summer and are inspired by the well-orchestrated symphony of activities - with beautiful, healthy food, and highly motivated, diverse teens working with passion towards a common mission. It seems to flow effortlessly.

The truth is….our summers are the complementary outcome of the other half of the year when we run vibrant youth programs such as the Academic Year Program and the Internship Program and plan for the next summer.

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Editor's note: we're happy to share (with permission of course!) the following note we received from TFP alum Luis Andino, who started in the Summer Youth Program way back in 2005.

Hello,

This may seems random but just emailing you to check in. Everything is going well here at Umass Dartmouth. I'm excited on my choice attending this school. So far I have a 106 average in bio, an A in precal, a B in english. The only class I'm struggling in is political science with a C, but I plan on improving in that. I work about 20 to max 25 hours a week. I am also going to apply to be an RA next semester to try to get involved in the school [...].

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