UC ANR Urban Ag project team plans youth-led urban agriculture tours

Nestled under the West Oakland BART tracks on a 3,000 square foot piece of garden paradise, is WOW Farm (http://wowfarm.biz/). Three of our Urban Agriculture team arrived on this sunny Friday morning to talk about the farm/garden program with Executive Director, Patricia Johnson. The UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Urban Ag project team is planning four youth-led urban ag tours and WOW Farm is one of our partners and tour sites. The ten neat raised beds, covered with baby to mature lettuces, spoke for themselves. “The kids did all this,” Patricia told us proudly. Each week, the dozen or so high school students, who have applied to be part of this after school program, plant and harvest two beds at a time, in rotation. Since the lettuces have a 30-day period from seed to maturity, there are always two beds of fresh, succulent lettuces and or other greens (we sampled purslane) to harvest and then sell. The students learn all of the skills necessary to grow these greens sustainably, harvest and then sell them to four or five local restaurants, which buy as much as the farm can produce. A few fruit trees, such as apples and pears, are sprinkled on the perimeter of the property for biodiversity. At one end of the garden is a bed with six or seven fresh herbs which the restaurants buy as well.

Students also learn how to be financially adept entrepreneurs through weekly classes from Patricia about how to run a successful business. Students and the two adult garden/farm managers go together to sell the produce at restaurants and learn about what it takes to produce and sell a high quality, consistent product. By the end of their five-month, paid internship on the farm, the students have learned a lot!

I was impressed by the well planned, beautiful beds and overall site. Although the students weren't there, it was obvious they cared about their work. Having the business classes for students to learn what it takes to make these operations economically sustainable is a unique and important part of this work. What a jewel in the middle of the neighborhood!

This fall, we will start planning with WOW Farms and the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Urban Ag team to do a youth-led Urban Ag tour. The youth will conduct the tours and highlight what they've accomplished at three or four urban ag sites in the Bay Area. In partnership with UA team member, Kathryn De Master and 4-H leader, Karen Bryce, we are organizing several youth training events to prepare students for how to lead the UA tours with confidence. In Northern California, up to three other UA organizations who work with youth will also send a few youth to the trainings and their operations will be stops on the tour. The purpose is to create leadership development opportunities for and with youth to empower them to describe and advocate for their urban ag programs. Another purpose is to more effectively bring together UC Cooperative Extension and community-based organizations to learn from each other.

Another set of trainings and a tour is being planned in Southern California, with guidance from Rachel Surls, UCCE food systems advisor, LA and D'Artagnan Scorza, Executive Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute. We've tentatively planned for the Bay Area trainings and tour in April and May 2015. For those interested in going on the half-day tour in the Bay Area, contact Gail Feenstra at gwfeenstra@ucdavis.edu. It should be an amazing day!

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