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Changing Lives, One Tomato at a Time… 1:Acre, 7: Teen Workers, 200: Fed DailyPosted: May 30th, 2013 ˑ Filled under: Feature ˑ Comments Closed

Photo by Bridget Egan

Each Saturday at 5 a.m., a small group of teenagers in Corvallis wake up with smiles on their faceshappy to greet the rain or cold and staff a booth at the farmers’ market to sell some produce. Soundlike any teenagers you know? They are part of the Workforce and Education Department ofCommunity Services Consortium (CSC), a community action agency serving Linn, Benton, and


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Lincoln counties.

The program outcomes are for students to earn a GED or diploma, to enter into post-secondarytraining or employment, and to achieve literacy and numeracy fluency.

But the ultimate goal is something much more.

“We really saw this as a way to teach youth work readiness skills and life skills. To grow your ownfood and think about what you’re eating,” said Sharee Cooper, a CSC employee who started thegarden in 2009. “The goals of the program are to engage as many youth as we can, so we intentionallyoverstaff the farmers’ market booth because we’re trying to teach something. It would be challengingin that model to ever break even. But it is our goal to sell as much as we can and bring as muchrevenue back as we can.”

Hoop house and garden; photo by Bridget Egan

At the corner of 2nd and Western in downtown Corvallis, the garden is highly visible, inviting thepublic to pause and engage with it. CSC and the youth like it that way.

“It’s like one of the best-kept secrets downtown. People visit to see what is going on. If you comedown once a week, you can see how much things change,” said Armand Schoppy, teacher and YouthGarden crew leader.

Passers-by wander through a demonstration garden filled with orderly boxes of onions, garlic, favabeans, and salad greens. Visitors ask questions, turning the students into teachers. On the day I visited,a man watched as two students picked pansies for pansy petal jelly. Pretty soon, he was engaging in aconversation and wandering into the little greenhouse.

Perhaps it’s the communal nature of gardening that draws people. People love to eat. More than that,we love seeing where our food comes from and we respond to the beauty of flowers and fruit,especially in a city. Growing food is a complex process that requires many hands to make it work. Formany of us, it is a wonderful mystery why we are drawn into the soil. At the CSC Youth Garden, theyoung people tend their garden like parents their children.


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Kayla and Austin in garden; photo by BridgetEgan

Everything follows organic practices. At certain times of year, they make and preserve salsas, jellies,and jams for value-added agriculture. The money they make goes right back into the program to buyseeds and pots and other items.

Kayla is a mom who enjoys the garden more than she ever did going to school. This is her third yearin the program and she is close to getting her GED with help from staff. She dropped out of school at15 and does not miss the crowds of people or the immaturity of her classmates. When she mentionsher three-year-old daughter, her grin grows wide and her eyes smile. When I asked about preserving,she is all business.

Her specialty is jams and jellies. She walked me through the steps to make dandelion jelly. “It tastesjust like dandelion flowers,” she responded when asked to describe it.

Kayla has experimented with more than 11 different kinds, including lemon and lime thyme jelly anda mean Hungarian pepper jelly. Her aspirations go beyond the canner, though. Someday she hopes tobecome a nurse or perhaps a chef.

Youth Program Manager Sean Larsen sees this step towards a career as a critical outcome for theprogram’s students. “Even if they don’t go on in gardening or farming, it’s still a tool for us to teachthem job readiness skills so they understand: What is customer service? What is it to come out everyday and take care of your part of the property? Through the whole experience, they are learning a lotabout how to find and keep a job.”


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Photo by Bridget Egan

Cooper agrees: “We thought it was a great opportunity to get youth involved in customer service,participating in that, so that’s what prompted us to start the project.”

Austin, a 20-year-old with a quiet voice, grew up farming and likes working with the customers at themarket, even at 6 a.m. “Sometimes I’m a little haggard but, you know, I make it through,” he joked.

He is working towards a fermentation science degree. He will leave in June and have close to $1,000in scholarship money from the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.

He also really likes tomatoes. One of his favorites has thorns—an experimental variety he and otherslearned about this winter while researching seeds, crops, and cultivars.

“I check it usually every other day to make sure it’s fine. There’s only a small amount because they’rereally hard to germinate, so I baby them,” Austin said.

Kayla and Austin; photo by Bridget Egan

He presented it for inspection from among the hundreds of healthy, strong starts the program hasoverflowing in its yard that Allan Bros. Coffee donates to the program. It also has fruit trees, chickens,orderly compost piles, and a lovely hoop house. There’s an astounding number of healthy plant starts.


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A new partnership means this abundance will have room to grow and more students can reap thebenefits.

CSC Youth Garden and the Children’s Farm Home of Corvallis have entered into an agreementallowing CSC to farm a half acre and use a greenhouse on the 50-acre campus. The Farm Home usedto be a functioning dairy farm and agricultural campus when it was an orphanage. Currently, it has atherapeutic healing garden for the children but they no longer mass-produce food on campus. TheCSC youth will grow organic food on the plot, and some of it will go to the Farm Home, some of itwill go to the Linn-Benton Food Share, and the rest will be sold at market. The Farm Home will usethe CSC Youth’s hard work and creativity to help feed 200 people each day.

The partnership makes sense in the age of budget cuts and reduced resources. The two groups shareadditional similarities—the youth in both programs can be misunderstood or cut-off from a stablecommunity. Residents of the Farm Home will not necessarily be working in the garden, but theproject provides a connection between the school, the CSC Youth, and the greater Corvalliscommunity.

Mark Elledge of Children’s Farm Home noted, “We’re trying to provide an education and a healthymeal. One thing I have noticed is when kids grow things, they’re much more willing to try it.”

Kayla and Austin; photo by Bridget Egan

Schoppy agreed. He and Sharee Cooper were amused to find the students eating more broccoli thanthey were harvesting a few weeks ago in the garden.

The CSC Youth Garden is proud of its success rate. Because the program is small, academic outcomesare usually achieved. Student time in the garden is supplemented with lots of mentoring and supportfrom staff to help students who often live in a state of flux gain stable ground. The garden project hasenabled the students to find meaning in work and belong to a community that relies on them toprovide quality food and knowledge.

There is an incredible connection between humans and our food. Tilling soil and tending to plants iscertainly therapeutic. As CSC demonstrates, it is also a way to change students’ lives.


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“It’s amazing how much they really care about the plants and things they started from seed. Theyreally feel connected to the product,” said Schoppy.

At the next farmers’ market, stop by their booth and ask about their starts or organic methods ortomatoes with thorns. They’ve done their research and are ready to teach.

To get involved or to make a donation to the program, visit the CSC Youth Garden Facebook page orvisit http://communityservices.us/education/detail/category/youth-garden/.

By Bridget Egan

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