Goals:

• Grow over 2,000 pounds of food and learn natural farming techniques. In addition to farm work such as building garden beds, spreading compost, planting vegetables, and harvesting our food!
• Support other community gardens in Worcester . There will be a chance to teach the skills we learn in the program to other youth and gardeners throughout the city. We will also build model compost bins and save enough seeds to distribute city-wide.
• Cook and serve the food we grow to people who need it. Get professional instruction and learn about nutrition.
• Donate most of the food we grow to pantries and people who need it.

Field Trips:

• We’ll take 7 field trips to rural farms and other agricultural sites in places such as Boston , Hartford , Springfield , and Holyoke .
• There will also be the opportunity to attend the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s summer conference (August) to participate in a workshop with many other urban gardens youth programs.

Start a Cooperative Business:

• Expand our cooperative business of My Mama Made It Sofrito and Oh Baby Hot Sauce

Organize Community Events:

• Get the community involved! Plan a block party at the Oread Street Community Farm.

Build Skills:

• Work on leadership skills and host visitors from other youth agencies.
• Learn urban agriculture techniques (mapping, soil, erosion, etc.).
• Practice public speaking skills and getting word out through the media.
• Become Soil Experts! Examine soil contamination and learn how plants can clean our soil and make our neighborhoods safer.

Accomplishments:

• Organized and started new and largest community garden in Worcester at 21 Benefit Street
• Performed the “Bangin’ Food System Circus” theater skit at the Spring Garden Forum where YouthGROW/UGROW participated in the starting of the Worcester Seed Saving Network
• YouthGROW teens organized and facilitated the following workshops:
  1. "Food Justice Gone Wild": an interactive theater presentation on food choices, hunger issues, and food justice
  2. Theater of the Oppressed Workshop for the HOPE Coalition
  3. Youth and Sustainable Agriculture Roundtable discussion at the NOFA Summer Conference
  4. Theater of the Oppressed Workshop at the NOFA Summer Conference
  5. Lead in Soil Remediation with The Food Project from Boston , MA
  6. Seed Saving for the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) in Lowell , MA
  7. Community Outreach and Door to Door organizing
• Finished two youth-designed banners and a Kiosk to welcome visitors to the YouthGROW Community Farm and Benefit Street Community Garden
• Brought out over 200 people to the Harvest Block Party, August 18th
• Increased YouthGROW Core Group from 14 participants to 20
• Completed 8 field trips to other farms, conferences and youth programs in the region
• Hosted 10 visiting groups from around the Northeast
• Started a YouthGROW Food Value Added product line with two products: “My Momma Made It Pesto and Sofrito”
• Started a YouthGROW Seed Production line for Community Gardeners "GROW - ME Seeds"
• Wrote a cover story for the In City Times and two articles for the online news service Worcester Indymedia.
• Received the Mayoral Proclamation on Lead Remediation at the City Council Chambers
• The four youth members of the Leadership Collective completed the Youth Leadership training series with the Worcester-wide coalition YouthF1RST.