Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps
Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps program has been employing Cleveland teens to tend urban gardens and sell fresh produce and flowers since 1996. Convening some of the city’s most valuable and underutilized resources—teenagers and land—Green Corps is making an impact. Veterans of the program take away gardening, business, and life skills, as well as a sense of pride in their work and community.
A typical summer day for a Green Corps student starts early. Students must be at work on time, sign in and join the morning meeting by 8:30 a.m. Tasks are assigned, tools are divvied up, and Green Corps students are planting and weeding in the garden by the time their friends and siblings are still just rolling out of bed.
The gardens are full of food, life and hands-on learning opportunities. Each student gets a 4’ x 8’ bed to plan and plant. Staff and volunteers conduct formal lessons throughout the season on plant biology, ecology, business and other skills. The week’s activities lead up to harvest and Saturday morning market in Shaker Square. In 2007, students grew and sold over 2,000 pounds of fresh tomatoes, beans, herbs, greens and other fresh produce, as well as the Ripe from Downtown® Salsa and Vinaigrette. The whole summer season culminates in five days of salsa production. Just before heading back to school, students from all the Learning Gardens gather to pick and chop tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro. Two thousand pounds of local vegetables went into the 2007 salsa.
At the end of each season, most students report field trips as a highlight of their experience. Driving through the countryside to visit farms, the city dwelling Green Corps students banter in the van about just what could be hiding out in that corn field or in those woods. Just as with a rural citizen dropped amidst tall downtown buildings, most students are far outside their comfort zones in the country. A few minutes on the farm and they usually drop some of their suspicion and pull out their cell phones to take pictures of the chickens or pigs.
Each garden group becomes a small community during this summer program. Green Corps students of different ages and from different schools have to learn, not only how to get along, but how to work together toward a common goal. Throughout the entire summer, students are practicing skills that will carry them through tumultuous teen years and into adulthood.
Using its twelve year history as a springboard, Green Corps is currently enjoying a growth spurt to employ more youth, green more communities and feed more Cleveland residents. For most of its life, Green Corps has employed 15 to 20 students at two Learning Gardens—the Little Yellow House and garden at the Dunham Tavern Museum on Chester Avenue and at the Esperanza Garden on West 25th St. and Erin Ave. In 2007, Cleveland Botanical Garden partnered with Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority to open a garden at E. 46 and Quincy, employing a dozen youths. In 2008, Cleveland Botanical Garden is partnering with Slavic Village Development Corporation and The Cleveland Foundation to build a new garden at E. 54 and Fleet to employ fifteen students. By the end of the 2008 season, Green Corps will tend over an acre of land in four urban Learning Gardens and employ 55 youth.
Green Corps is expanding more than just garden space. Youth now have the opportunity to be employed for three successive seasons and to participate in apprenticeships with green businesses in their third season. Also, Cleveland Botanical Garden is connecting to local resources to include more health and financial education in the program. Even the salsa product has a fresh new taste, thanks to a partnership with Sergio’s restaurant.
Please take time this summer to get to know Cleveland’s Green Corps youth by shopping at Shaker Square Market or by stopping in at one of the Learning Garden Open House events. For more information contact Amy Matthews at 216-707-2832, amatthews@cbgarden.org or visit www.cbgarden.org/Learn/Outreach.html.