Victory Garden Initiative empowers people to grown their own food, creating a new generation of self-sustaining, healthy eaters. They have many different programs that reach into Milwaukee neighborhoods, teaching folks about healthy food, one veggie at a time.
I visited one of their new programs, the Farm Stand. All summer, VGI worked in the Harambee neighborhood in the Concordia Gardens, planting fruits and vegetables in the 1 1/2 acre mini urban farm. As planting began, kids from the neighborhood stopped by everyday to see what was going on. It wasn't long before the kids were invited to help with the gardens. "It's in their own back yard," says Gretchen Mead, founding director for the Victory Garden Initiative. "Their families are involved, their parents know where they are. They could look out their back window and see them working in the garden." She continues, "That's when we thought, what better thing for the to do then to actually really get searious about growing food with us and earn an income." That's when the Farm Stand program was started.
Each Thursday, the kids gather at Concordia Gardens to harvest the food that they will sell hours later at the Farm Stand. Check out the story above to hear more from the kids and learn about the Farm Stand program here.
*thanks to Kati Schnierer and András Terray for their photo contributions
