To Grow Young Farmers in #Ferguson
EarthDance sustainably grows food, farmers, and community, one small farm at a time, through hands-on education and delicious experiences. To count how many times I have written our mission in the last four and a half months would take the fingers and toes of more people than our staff. You would be logical to assume the meaning of these words has watered down with time, and you would also be wrong. “Growing food, farmers, and community” bears a heft seemingly impossible the abstract nature of words. This has everything to do with the farmers I have come to work beside and a 14 acre plot in Ferguson, Missouri. The nature of what we do has not changed, but its necessity has deepened. Because Ferguson (#Ferguson, as much a removal of the human element as a renaming) means something different now. To all of us.
The President’s and Vice President’s meeting with organizers of national movements has cemented Ferguson’s symbolic embedding in the American historical consciousness, probably beyond my lifetime. I have listened to people unpack everything that has happened since August 9th with politically polarizing, hateful, aspirational, and inspirational language. The only word everyone seems to agree on is “tragic.” For EarthDance, the signifier will always be “home”: the earth whose bounty we try to repay; meals prepared with and for others; the markets where we sell our vegetables and meet our neighbors; those neighbors’ smiles, curiosities, and needs, from knowledge to hunger. (The list grows on.) Ferguson residents may be enveloped in tragedy, but this is not a tragic place. This is a community pouring resilient love on what has broken, all ages boarding up the smashed windows of its businesses and then painting them with murals calling for peace. Its members are banding together to rebuild, and the Go Fund Me Campaign we started last week, aimed at serving and empowering local youth, is part of the rebuilding effort.
The Campaign for Ferguson Farm School Youth Jobs
This campaign is about expanding EarthDance YEAH (Youth Exploring Health & Agriculture) programming in 2015, including the Junior Farm Crew, Work Experience Program, & Catch Healthy Habits. These programs provide elementary to college age youth opportunities to receive a hands-on education with agricultural, nutritional, and environmental components; but an education in agriculture is about more than farm skills. Their job and leadership training will assist participants in future work places and interpersonal relationships. Moreover, members engage with food and the land, experiencing the farm as a unique teaching space. Too many of us overlook how connections with food and land connect us with each other. Imagine if we all got to know each other in the dirt, at the marketplace, over meals with veggies we grew together, and what that place would look like. This is the kind of place EarthDance strives to be, one of many organizations in a budding local food movement which is exactly that-budding-especially in North County communities immersed in food deserts.
As participants in EarthDance’s programs, young people have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and take on responsibilities that will serve them well in any future career. For instance, the Junior Farm Crew offers participants the chance to work on a real farm alongside CEO group leader Kurt Uhlir and other experienced mentors. By taking on tasks like planting, weeding, and harvesting, participants learn how to work collaboratively with others toward a common goal. Additionally, the Work Experience Program and Catch Healthy Habits both provide opportunities for youth to take on leadership roles in educating their peers about healthy habits and sustainable agriculture. By developing these skills, program participants will be better equipped to take on leadership roles in their communities and in any future careers they pursue.
If I had to guess, one of the last priorities on most people’s minds, especially our neighbors’, is devoting time to an agricultural education. With your help, though, we can give the tools and hope for the happy, successful futures that appear bleak or even lost to a lot of Ferguson youth right now. The fact is that, for many of these young people, the events in Ferguson exaggerate daily realities constituted by violence of many forms. EarthDance aims to instill not only bright but sustainable futures for youth program members in 2015. With a framework through which the world exists as a place of possibility, they will be leaders in all professional and personal pursuits they choose.
The fact is, to sustain our work, we will always have to call on others for support. All non-profit organizations must. But with every contribution, the humbling experience of others’ generosity never lets up. Every time you reach out to us, so that we may reach out to others, the light of gratitude washes over us. We hope you feel the same.
