Teen Youth Educate Peers in Creating a Healthy Food System
This year, the Learning Center received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a new program to encourage environmental stewardship amongst teen youth who participate in our on-farm programs. As a result, we have a new crop of leadership for our On-Farm programs this spring. Two groups of teens from 10 schools ranging geographically from rural Wisconsin to south Chicago attended leadership training days this year, and have since returned to the farm to serve as peer educators to other students from their schools.
Over 50 students from Chute Middle School in Evanston attended a field trip on May 19, facilitated by three students who attended our April leadership day. It was gratifying to see the students teach their peers everything from how to hold a chicken to the differences between soil managed organically and conventionally. The peer leaders have a strong sense that this is their farm, and that they have a role in sharing it with others.
Students are also following through with related projects back at school. At Deerfield High School, students started classroom worm bins. Alcuin Montessori’s Middle School is leading younger students in a taste test between processed and fresh foods. And students from Rock Valley College’s Upward Bound program have designed lunch room bulletin boards to engage their peers in understanding the food system and their choices therein.
In her own words, from an 8th grader in suburban Chicago:
“Recently, I visited Angelic Organics Farm with a group of students and showed them around the farm while teaching them about organic farming and concepts. This experience helped me understand Angelic Organic Learning Center’s mission, and why anyone should dedicate themselves to this cause.
To most kids in our generation, farming is something apart from their world. Before my first trip to Angelic Organics, the word conjured up an image of a man in overalls with a pitchfork. Meeting real people who worked a farm as a profession was a grounding experience, and to teach other kids from my school about it, to be the farmer, was extremely fun. Sharing my knowledge about this world with my peers was a great opportunity.
Teaching today’s children about organic farming is important in my eyes because it gives them a basis for the choices they make. Knowledge is power, and I am glad to support Angelic Organics Learning Center in their mission to give knowledge to our generation.”