WANT BK FARMYARDS PRODUCE? You can either come to our market stand (600 Kingston Ave) Wednesdays 3:30-7:00pm or sign up for our Farmshare CSA program to recieve weekly shares of produce all season long We got carrots and collards and callaloo...and those are only our C's.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM!
The mission of our Summer Youth Employment Program at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm is to provide youth with job training; teach horticulture and market skills to youth; and to foster communication and community building within the group. The program is a partnership between BK Farmyards, the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders, their Growing Leaders program, and the High School for Public Service. The youth work 22.5 hours per week on the farm and 2.5 hours per week attending educational programs at our host site, the Center for Counseling and Mediation. This project is also a pilot program to help facilitate turning the Leaders’ asphalt parking lot into a farm this fall. Our goal is to provide schools with reproducible, fun, and rewarding food system curriculum.
Adventures in Urban Farming during SYEP
- Horticulture workshops and farm work that will teach teens about sustainable agriculture
- Food justice workshops and market training that teaches the teens to sell fresh produce to the neighborhood and spread awareness about the farm’s role in bringing healthy food to the community
- Daily community meals prepared on the farm culminating in a youth-run party for friends and family at the end of the program
- Communication workshops that will hone teen’s abilities to give each other encouraging feedback
- Media workshops, in partnership with Green Guerilla Youth Group, where teens will study junk food advertisements and create their own ads promoting fresh fruit and vegetables
Off-site Field work
- In collaboration with the Brooklyn Food Coalition Mapping Committee, the students will survey the local food options in their community and discuss how to use the data to effect change.
- In collaboration with BK Farmyards and New York Restoration Project, the students will be visiting our 50-hen chicken coop to learn how to keep urban chickens.
- Our youth will visit East New York Farms! where their Youth Program will give our students a workshop (topic yet to be decided), and the two youth groups will prepare a meal together.
- As an example of a large, successful farmers market, our youth will visit Union Square where they will go on a scavenger hunt for seasonal fruits and vegetables.
- Our youth will visit Boswyck farm to learn about hydroponic growing in the city.
- Our youth will visit a regional farm with the Green Guerilla Youth Group to see a large-scale farming operation.
BK Farmyards Youth Farm in the news:
- The students of the High School for Public Service speak about the impacts of the youth farm in its first season.
- Daily News Reports, “High School for Public Service in East Flatbush plans schoolyard farm to sell fresh produce”
- Groundswell shows the student volunteers helping to build the farm, “BK Farmyards: The Jewel of Urban Farming in Crown Heights”
- Brooklyn Based talks about the High School for Public Service Secret to Success, “Junior Farmers”
- Rachel Ray’s Yum-O! site gives us a shout out:
Growing Leaders in the news
- The Brooklyn Eagle reports, “This Garden Grows Leaders”:
- Green Thumb shares news of student success to win a grant for the Growing Leaders Garden
- Baruch student, Viktoriya Syrov, shares her documentary video of the 2010 Growing Leaders Earth Day Bucket Brigade
- Natural Gourmet Institute writes about partnership with The Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders to bring healthy food into schools
- Fred Mogul of WNYC.ORG writes about the Growing Leaders Garden
- Check out our student run website to learn more
How you can be involved to sponsor this exciting project?
- Sponsors can donate ingredients or cooking equipment for one of our planned recipes and come help the students prepare a community meal on the farm. Note: community meals are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:00-12:30, preparation time is 11:00-12:00.
- Sponsors can designate which part of the program they wish to fund, and we will find fun ways for the sponsor to interact with the students during that program.
- Sponsors can donate tools & volunteer to learn farmwork from youth Tuesdays 10:00-12:00.
- Sponsors will be featured on BK Farmyards website.
- Sponsors can attend field work on Thursday afternoons (times vary by project).
- Sponsors will be invited to an appreciation ceremony April 12th and youth-run celebration meal April 19th.