The Giving Garden is committed to uplifting future changemakers in our local food system
In partnership with Project YouthBuild, a 2nd-chance leadership program for young people in Alachua County, the Giving Garden offers an apprenticeship program to students interested in food system leadership. Giving Garden apprentices participate in lessons at our farm on a weekly basis throughout their school year. In addition to learning and working at our farm, apprentices take field trips to experience local players and impactful organizations in our food system. Students gain hands on seed-to-plate work experience and meet local leaders who teach apprentices about food justice. Our goal is to equip these young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to become leaders in our local food system and to help inspire our wider community to increase regional food sovereignty.
Read our posts below for a look into what apprentices have been up to!
Year Two Begins! The Giving Garden Apprenticeship kicks off another year.
Four young adults, ages 17-20, have joined the Giving Garden as apprentices, embarking on a journey to become future leaders in our local food system. Starting mid-November, these apprentices are gaining hands-on experience in workforce development and learning the essentials of growing fresh, healthy food.
We launched this year’s program by teaching them to harvest fresh greens and showing how our nonprofit farm functions. Together, we took that produce directly to the food bank, connecting their work to community impact from day one.
In the coming weeks, these apprentices will dive deeper into regenerative, organic gardening, with field trips and “working interviews” with local food system leaders. We’re thrilled to see all they’ll accomplish as they grow into passionate, capable advocates for sustainable food!
Giving Garden apprentices learn how other local farms produce fresh food for our community.
Throughout April, students went on field trips to two local farms — a market garden, Nicoya Farm, which sells its produce at several local farmers markets, and Field and Fork, a University of Florida farm dedicated to growing food for university students who are food insecure. Apprentices gained direct experience working side-by-side with farmers, and had the opportunity to learn about their operations and their leadership in our local food community.
A favorite farm task was pulling carrots, perhaps the most exciting vegetable to harvest this Spring!
From field to fork…
After months of learning to grow their own food at the Giving Garden, apprentices harvested the crops they’ve cultivated in order to make a meal with local entrepreneur, Chef Carl of Underground Kitchen. Additionally, students have visited local growing sites to harvest African Peas, and save those seeds for cooking. Over the course of several weeks, apprentices saved three different varieties of African Peas, all of which were used in making their culinary creations with Chef Carl.
Chef Carl works with youth to empower them through culinary career development and by teaching young people to cook culturally-rich dishes using local ingredients.
We are grateful for our partnership with Working Food, through which apprentices have learned to save local seeds and cook with them! We are so appreciative for our partnership with Chef Carl, who has helped our students learn how to further value the crops they are growing by creating a culturally-relevant, delicious meal. Congratulations to our apprentices, for growing nutrient-dense food and honing your kitchen skills with those crops!
Farming, Vermiculture, and Food Justice at Porters Quarters Community Farm
In December, Giving Garden apprentices took a field trip to discover nearby farm, Porters Quarters Community Farm. Students met with Head Farmer, Otis Garrison. We are grateful to Otis for taking the time out of his day to talk with students about local food justice, how Porters addresses food sovereignty as a historically Black neighborhood, and how his farm operates using regenerative practices.
Seed Stewardship at Grow Hub, Local Plant Nursery, and Working Food’s Seed Gardens
Roselle is a crowd favorite. It’s Florida’s version of cranberries - with harvest perfectly timed for the festive holiday season. Apprentices had fun working alongside seed stewards of Working Food, our local seed bank, to harvest roselle pods and to process roselle seeds. After sifting pod chaff from the seeds, our apprentice, Isiah, exclaimed, “I want to save seeds for my job!” It’s exciting to see that occupations in food systems - like seed stewardship - are becoming real to our students.
Before working with roselle, students took a tour of Grow Hub - Gainesville’s plant nursery that employs disabled adults and hosts a range of organizations that contribute to our local food system. Our apprentice, Mya, was not only shocked by the smell of our city’s local compost site… but also how hot the inside of a composting pile can be. Together, apprentices learned about how composting works and why those piles are so hot inside! Beaten Path Compost, Gainesville’s composting company, is based at Grow Hub, providing visitors with a great opportunity to learn about closed-loop systems. Back at the Giving Garden, we use that compost for soil - which our apprentices work with every week!
Saving Seeds at a Local Farm
It’s pea seed saving season! We took a field trip to Siembra Farm, a local organic farm that is participating in a SARE project in collaboration with Working Food - all in an effort to increase local seed sovereignty. We learned why it is important to save and steward local seeds, and how to do so! With the founder of Working Food, Melissa, we removed dried southern pea pods for their seeds. It was fun to experience a local farm in operation, providing an expanded perspective of the farming community to our apprentices.
Learning to Harvest Crops to Increase Fresh Food Access
In the first few weeks of our 2023-2024 apprenticeship program, students learned how to identify most of the crops grown at our organic donation farm. Apprentices studied the proper methods to harvest and prepare vegetables for the consumer. Of course, we snacked on almost all the veggies along the way!
After harvesting and washing vegetables, apprentices hand-delivered our produce to nearby food bank, the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank. Upon arriving, clientele immediately requested the big stacks of mustard greens in our hands. It felt good to know that our produce, prepared by apprentices, was sought after. This moment helped to solidify our work as a donation farm to apprentices.
Apprentices learn about local growing at our farm, which in turn helps to provide fresh food access in their community. We are working to establish a strong sense of empowerment within our apprentices, as they see first hand that their contributions at the Giving Garden make them impactful leaders in our city.
