Austin Grown Summer 2021 images by Ana Garcia-Doyle.
By Lynzie Horejs
August 12th marked the end of another successful summer for Austin Grown. One Earth Collaborative and its partners worked this six-week program with youth in the Austin community and some of Chicago’s other disinvested neighborhoods to educate and build a sense of leadership through an urban farm.
Austin Grown is a partnership between BUILD Chicago, One Earth Collective, and After School Matters. Austin Grown teaches an annual summer youth cohort to plant and maintain an urban farm while also educating about healthy food systems, food justice, restorative environmental justice, green entrepreneurship and community-building. All youth earn a stipend while they work and while they learn. The urban farm even houses a flock of 9 chickens and uses solar panels to generate electricity! The youth took part in virtual speaker sessions, chef demos, healthy food tastings, and an eye-opening field trip to Chicago Eco House this summer.
Ana Garcia Doyle, One Earth’s Executive Coordinator, worked with BUILD’s Farm Manager, Danszale Lahmon, to design the program. The duo made up a great team as Doyle created the enrichment curriculum while Lahmon led the farming aspect of the Austin Grown program. “When designing the curriculum,” Ana says, “one of the main considerations to underline is that we are inviting environmentalists, sustainability professionals, and community activists of color. We want these kids to see themselves in the leaders who are coming to speak and share their knowledge, background and experience.”
Danszale adds, “I had the pleasure of running the Austin Grown summer program. Some highlights for myself were seeing youth try vegan food for the first time, having youth who are PETRIFIED of bugs work alongside them, and finally just seeing youth connect back to garden work!!”
Speaker Sessions
Austin Grown participants were fortunate to hear from several guest speakers. Speakers discussed their life stories, shared a positive message, and taught according to a weekly theme of the program. Speaker Credell Wells, a community engagement specialist, shared his life story with the group while stressing the importance of perseverance.“Regardless of whatever types of struggles you feel you might be going through in your life, perseverance is going to play a key role.” Wells grew up with five siblings on Chicago’s South Side, has worked with Dr. Jane Goodall, and currently serves as the Outreach Program Coordinator for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Other riveting speakers included Michael Strautmanis, Executive Vice President of Civic Engagement for the Barack Obama Foundation, who spoke about community-building—and Danielle Russell, School Garden Coordinator for Openlands, who led the cohort in a native planting session to get in the dirt and also understand that planting natives is key to pollinator (and human food system) health.
Chef Demos
A goal of Austin Grown is to educate its youth about healthy food systems in context of both human and environmental health. To act on this goal, the youth cohort participated in plant-based cooking demos taught by local sustainable chefs. Chef Cheryl Munoz, the founder and owner of Sugar Beet Schoolhouse, repeated her lesson session from previous years of showing students how to make smoothies using an alternative energy source—human energy on a bike! Students pedaled the bike to rotate the blades of the blender and got to drink the smoothies they made.
Tsadakeeyah (“Chef T”) Emmanuel demonstrates how delicious vegan cooking can be.
Other chefs, also repeat participants from past years, included vegan chefs Qia Carswell, founder and owner of Chicago Style Vegan, and Tsadakeeyah (“Chef T”) Emmanuel, founder and owner of Majani Restaurant, which has locations in South Shore, Pullman, and South Loop. Chef T, who has been vegan for 40 years, led the youth in interactive cooking demos of Orange Lentil Soup, Hot Water Corn Bread, and loaded Vegan Tacos. Some of the youth also volunteered to help chop and stir with Chef Qia, who demoed Vegan BBQ “Ribs'' with Sweet & Sour Veggie Kabobs, as well as Italian “Beef” Sandwiches, Mixed Greens Salad with Avocado Dressing, and Sriracha “Nooch'' Popcorn. Everyone heartily enjoyed a healthy lunch together following the food demos.
Field Trips
The Austin Grown students had the opportunity to visit Southside Blooms, the in-house flower business of Chicago’s Eco House. Chicago Eco House’s Farm Manager, Cade Kamaleson, toured the youth through the organization’s off-grid operation (they collect their own solar energy and rain water), and shared the entrepreneurial basics of how youth are trained and employed to help run Southside Blooms. The flowers are grown, cut, and bundled at this location to be sold as bouquets and other floral products in order to sustain long-term employment for youth.
Participants picked colorful bouquets at Southside Blooms.
“These teens came to Austin Grown without much knowledge in gardening, but thanks to Danszale they are now walking away with the interest and skills to run their own urban gardens, the passion for food equity and access in communities, and a lot of new friends,” David Pohlad from After School Matters recollects. David worked as the Program Specialist for Austin Grown. “I work primarily with the program’s instructor Danszale on curriculum and teaching coaching, recruitment help, and general support to make sure the summer is smooth and thriving for ASM teens.”
The Austin Grown program has ended for the summer, but there are always opportunities to participate. To learn when and how to visit BUILD’s Iris Farm in the future, check the organization’s Employment and Volunteering page for updates.