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Introduction
Throughout Project S.O.W., youth work together to investigate how to grow food, explore their relationship with the land and food system, reflect on introductory justice concepts, and practice leadership. We encourage youth to take what they explored and further their interests by way of an action project. This project is an opportunity for the group to continue to learn, grow and share with others as they do. We encourage the group to start small and finish, and to keep it manageable – in fact, in an era of “too busy and too much,” keeping the project small will ensure its completion and hopefully, be a joyful experience as well. This project can be done by the group or individually.
Check out this example action project from CCE Erie 4-H Teens!
We hope this project offers youth the opportunity to learn more about a food gardening topic that interests them and empowers them to share this knowledge with their community. Research has found that garden interest in young people is strongly linked to decision-making opportunities, more so than garden activity (Lekies & Eames-Sheavly, 2008). We encourage facilitators to lean into this as they support young people through developing their projects. Their project can take many forms which can include and is not limited to… growing a portion of their own food, giving a community presentation, making a garden sign, growing food for a local pantry, interviewing people in their community about food traditions, learning about their own food traditions, going on a field trip, and more. Below are some guidelines to help youth develop their project.
Guidelines
- Explore what most interests the group or individuals. Use activities 4.3 Reimagine Our Food System and 4.4 Rooting Ourselves as a launching point. Generate a list of topics or issues that the group is interested in.
- Research your topic of interest and talk to stakeholders. Create a community survey to learn about topic prevalence and relevance. Go on a field trip to learn more.
- Make a plan: determine what needs to be done for success and make a schedule to ensure tasks get done.
- After each step of the plan, evaluate what worked well and what did not work well.
- Come together for celebration after project completion.
References
Lekies, K. S., & Eames-Sheavly, M. (2008). Evaluating an initiative to increase youth participation in school and community gardening activities. Journal of Youth Development, 3(2), 119-125.