garden attracts a young crop

By Aaron Lemley
Photos by Kate Robertson

The soiled hands of Nathan, age 5, bury bean seeds beneath a newly constructed teepee. Nathan’s mother, Amy Williams, looks about a freshly tilled plot, which will soon grow to become the Hope Drive Summer Youth Garden.

In 2006, Community Food Initiatives (CFI) began a community garden program at the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Hope Drive Apartments, a public housing complex for low-income individuals and families.

The Williams family is one of many in the community to take an active role in the youth program, which allows several local children to participate. The number of children varies from day to day, but attendance is consistently over 15 for each lesson.

This year the eight-week long Hope Drive Summer Youth Program has expanded the scope of its vision to include a production garden. Currently five young gardeners are growing fresh, organic produce to be sold in the Athens Farmers Market. “It’s a great opportunity for the kids to learn to work in and care for a garden, while managing money,” Williams said. Her 11-year-old son, Michael, works in the production garden and her 5-year-old son frequently attends the gardening and cooking classes.

Gardening and cooking days are free to willing children between the ages of 5 to 14. With varying lesson topics and an informal roster, each day is something new: Two days a week the program focuses on growing, maintaining and harvesting a 30x15 garden which the children designed and planted themselves. It features a cucumber tunnel, a bean pole teepee, a three sister’s garden, a watermelon patch and a scarecrow couple named Bob and Paulina.

Liz Shaw is in charge of this new program. It was thanks to her that this summer’s program added the production garden and cooking day elements. “We’ve added a nutritional component to our broader goal of increasing food security for the families,” Shaw said. Known as the “Garden Lady” to the children, Shaw emphasizes “fun” as the key ingredient to program’s success. Each week Shaw and her trio of interns juggle an education-based curriculum encompassing organic gardening, basic cooking skills, healthy food choices and environmental impact.

“One of the biggest challenges is engaging all of the children each day with educational activities that consider a wide range of attention spans,” Shaw said. A day in the kitchen typically begins with a “wiggle” activity, leading into meal preparation with an incorporated lesson, and ends with lunch. Taryn Longberry, a student and intern with the Hope program, said the lessons help promote healthy eating habits on a low budget.  “We have to explain that a Happy Meal, though cheap, is expensive in other ways,” Longberry said. “We try to make fresh food more enjoyable than a Coke or candy.” The local produce for each meal is provided by the CFI Donation Station.

The end result is a healthy weekly routine provided free of charge to the Hope Drive community. “If the kids have fun and we are able to provide great memories of gardening and eating healthy then they will take it with them their whole lives,” Shaw said.

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