Youth Center Grows Community With Urban Agriculture

What’s the best way to provide a population with healthy foods? In Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, igniting a passion with its young people for urban agriculture is key.

The Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC), a community mainstay for the past 20 years, has been providing sustainable and nutritious fruits and vegetables via its successful Urban Agriculture Department, while deepening youth’s connection to the earth and honing their skills to build healthier communities.

Designed For Urban Agriculture

The building housing GCYC was designed with urban farming in Chicago in mind, thanks to the 8,000 square foot rooftop garden that grows seasonal harvests. Likewise, the center’s 1.75 acre farm, added in 2010, gives young people the opportunity to study and hone their urban agriculture skills. It’s knowledge that middle schoolers and teens to young adults participating in the GCYC Urban Agriculture Department programs can apply throughout their lives.

“The programs help to grow over 16,000 pounds of food that goes home with youth participants, is donated in neighborhood food pantries, used in the daily meal service at the center and even sold to local restaurants,” shares Amanda Anderson, associate director of Urban Agriculture about the impact urban farming in Chicago has on the community.

Likewise, the skills participants acquire through the Urban Agriculture Department programs can be useful for future careers. “One of the things that makes the Comer Crops programs [under the Urban Agriculture Department] unique is that both the Urban Farmer and Culinary Arts apprentices are able to gain hands-on experience with the full life cycle of food production on our 1.75 acre farm and in our commercial kitchen,” details Bill Ladd-Cawthorne, GCYC director of Youth Employment.

Homegrown Talent

So what is it like for youth participating in the GCYC Urban Agriculture Department programs? Urban Agriculture program instructor Sanaa Ragsdale knows the experience first hand. “Really, I’ve been around the youth center since I’ve been in high school,” says Ragsdale.

The Chicago native went through the whole Urban Agriculture Department programs and internships, took time to attend college, then returned to GCYC as an instructor for the Urban Agriculture Department’s Green Teens Program. “My Green Teens are ages 14 through 18. So I deal with high school-based students and we do a lot of the grunt work and really take care of our rooftop and our food education garden,” details Ragsdale.

Tomatoes, collard greens, okra and herbs are just some of the many plants grown by the students. “We have a hydroponic lab, so we have our lettuce that we consistently grow. And we have different herbs upstairs on the rooftop: lavender, rosemary, lemon verbena. I teach my students how to make tea and lemonade from scratch,” details the 22-year-old instructor about just one of the fun, and educational, projects she curated.

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Urban Farming in Chicago

The Green Teen program has an average of 32 participants who are involved throughout the year. “So during the school year, they come to my program after school and they do it for about two hours,” explains Ragsdale about the urban farming in Chicago program.

“Then in the summer, they will graduate into an hourly paid wage because Green Teens is a work readiness program. So not only am I teaching them horticulture, but I’m teaching them how to sustain a job as well. And so by me giving them those lessons and job skills, they’re able to go into their other jobs and do very well… The readiness that they learn from my program doesn’t have to just deal with agriculture.”

Some of those life lessons include the importance of collaboration and a planning for success mindset points out Ragsdale. She notes, “Because working on a farm, you’re not just done [on] any of the days. You’ve always got to do something next. And so they’re just always striving to get to the that next level of success that they want to be in.”

A better understanding of how food makes it onto the table is another important takeaway the GCYC Urban Agriculture Department hopes to impart on participants. “I think a program like this is essential because it’s a survival skill,” relates Ragsdale.

“I’m teaching them to grow the same food that they’re eventually going to put in their bodies. They eventually have to understand where food access comes from. If they see the process of how their food is growing, they won’t take [for granted] the food that they have now—the going to the grocery store and being able to buy those different foods—because at one point in time you could only be able to eat what you grew.”

As for the most rewarding part of her job, Ragsdale says it’s about “seeing my students involved” and fostering that that spark of interest in each participant. “A lot of my students come in and they don’t really get enough guidance [especially from] someone that’s close in age range and looks like them with a proper head on their shoulders,” says Ragsdale. “And when they see me, they very much respect me. I’ve never had to deal with a disrespectful student. I don’t have to deal with behavior issues because they come in and I make my program enjoyable.”

While Ragsdale admits that participating in the Urban Agriculture Department programs at an early age changed her life, it’s the work she’s now doing—and the urban farming in Chicago programs at GCYC—that’s admittedly changing the lives of so many others. And for anyone who loves to watch a garden grow, that’s a crop worth nurturing.