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Greetings from the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Green Youth Farm!
The Chicago Botanic Garden has been asked to share some of its experiences and lessons in youth gardening programs with other organizations starting similar programs, and the community gardening staff are happy and honored to do that. This brochure contains a short history of the Garden’s community gardening programs, lessons from the curriculum and other resources, and a high level description of how the farms run on a day to day basis.
The Garden’s model for youth garden programming, Green Youth Farm, opens a door to discovery for young people, while providing access to affordable fresh produce for families and communities. Through engaging, authentic work and training, the Green Youth Farm offers a platform to educate young people about the natural world as they build skills that prepare them to enter the workforce. While managing and maintaining a garden, young people learn about sustainable agriculture practices, healthy food preparation and eating habits, teamwork, responsibility, community service, entrepreneurship and careers in the green industries. The Green Youth Farm conducts activities through a youth development framework that links youth with caring adults who engage them in skill-building activities to develop their personal, social, academic, and vocational abilities.
The Green Youth Farm grew out of the Chicago School Garden Initiative that ran from 1997 to 2005. This initiative taught the Chicago Botanic Garden two important lessons that still guide its community gardening programs. First, children and youth get more excited about gardens they can eat from—all time favorite garden themes were salsa, pizza, and “three sisters” gardens (traditional native American corn, squash, and beans). Second, garden programs for young people in Illinois should include intensive summer programming, because it is during the summer months that plants grow best and young people most need work.
Out of these lessons, the original Green Youth Farm was born in 2003 on a one acre site in northeast Lake County that continues to serve about 22 high school students each year from North Chicago and Waukegan. The second Green Youth Farm grew up in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood in 2005 and serves 20 high school students per year from the Manley Career Academy and other schools. This summer will mark the third season for the Garden’s first Junior Green Youth Farm, serving sixth through eighth graders at the McCorkle Elementary School in the Bronzeville/Grand Boulevard community. McCorkle is a feeder school for Dyett High School, where a fourth Green Youth Farm program will open this summer, letting Junior Green Youth kids graduate into the high school program.