BRATTLEBORO — Jeff Ford, 17, is working with the Youth Agriculture Project (YAP).
When asked what he likes best, he says, “I like everything.”
“I applied because I wanted a job outside,” Annelise Kloster, 19, says. “I also like the idea of working with people my own age.”
Both are part of a six-week paid experience, called Summer Work and Learn, along with 14 other youths, working on a 1-acre organic farm at the Vermont Agricultural Business Education Center in Brattleboro.
The participants learn not just how to grow and cook food, but also to develop other skills, such as teamwork and problem solving.
Liz Kenton, YAP project coordinator at the University of Vermont Extension office, is responsible for researching grants, reporting payroll and hiring the youth involved with the project - the kind of work, she says, that goes on “in the background.”
UVM Extension's 4-H program, which provides the Youth Agriculture Project staff's salary, offers a wide variety of resources to the program, including help with grants and development, says Kenton.
The Youth Agricultural Project also benefits from regional funding and grants related to local food programs, says Kenton. These grants pay the salaries to the youth involved in the projects.
Kenton, hired last year after the departure of program founder Sara Coblyn Porth, says she thinks of YAP as “a safe place where people can open up.”
The program is described as a summer job-training program. According to its mission statement, YAP serves to “help young people build life and job skills through hands-on learning about nutrition, food and agriculture, with a focus on food and agricultural safety.”
YAP students work 21 hours a week, Tuesdays through Fridays, in eight weeks from June through August.
Each week, youth work in the field and sell the crops they've harvested at the Brattleboro Wednesday Farmers' Market.
They take part in workshops taught by staff or community members on topics such as team building, farming skills or job interviewing skills. The first week of training included a discussion about nutrition and how the resources available dictate how well people eat, says Kenton.
Kenton says she believes it's important for the program to integrate partnerships with community members.
“A partnership means a visit, or help planning a workshop.” says Kenton.
This year, the Youth Agricultural Project collaborated with the Brattleboro Food Co-op's outreach and education staff to make a recipe from ingredients from the project garden and to hand out samples to co-op customers.
Children ages 6-12 from the Westgate Housing Community in Brattleboro come to visit the farm and participate in a mentoring program, which allows teen participants to teach younger kids about farming, or just hang out and play silly games together, says Kenton.
Local food shelves have also come to depend on YAP. Kenton says that last year, approximately 1,000 pounds of food grown on the plot - or about half of the harvest - was donated to the Brattleboro Drop In Center, Grace's Kitchen, the Southeast Vermont AIDS Project, and the Vermont FoodBank.
Farm Manager Sam Rowley is responsible for assigning jobs and finding work for the participants. He is outside with the students each day, where he tries to match participants with jobs they're interested in.
“Sometimes the work is a challenge, he says, “but we try to make it fun and interesting and mix up the tasks.”
When out in the field, Rowley tries to put them into little groups, where they can “work together and learn from each other.”
Each week, time is set aside for a session where staff share feedback and see what the participants enjoyed, what they didn't enjoy, and what could be done better the next week.
“We try to keep an open atmosphere, with good lines of communication,” says Rowley.
Some youth are referred by state agencies, nonprofits, or schools like Vocational Rehabilitation, Families First, the state Corrections Department, or the Community High School.
“We try to have a good mix of backgrounds and abilities,” says Kenton, adding that the goal is providing “a safe place, where everyone can benefit.”
Kenton wants to provide the full experience of a traditional job. Students must send in an application and schedule an interview. All the students she looks for must have an interest in working in agriculture, she says.
She says that she hopes that participants come away with greater connections to the community.
This year's program ends on Aug. 20, when the YAP youths will host a Community Feast for their family and friends and share their experiences.
Kenton says for many, this is their first job experience.
“It's unbelievable the change you see,” she says.