Grow Dat

In the middle of New Orleans's urban sprawl, a seven-acre farm grows youth leaders root to stem

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There’s more growing at Grow Dat Youth Farm than vegetables, fruits, and herbs. On the seven-acre urban homestead smack in the middle of New Orleans City Park, lessons in leadership, critical thinking, and effective communication are just as important as those in land stewardship and sustainable farming. Wandering the sprawling outdoor classroom amid the fields of salad greens, beds of herbs, fruit-laden trees, and the backdrop of eight-hundred-year-old oaks, it’s easy to forget Interstate 610 is a stone’s throw away.

Launched in 2010 by New Mexico transplant and food educator, Johanna Gilligan, Grow Dat found its home in 2011 at its City Park eco-campus, complete with an open-air classroom and outbuildings designed by and built with the help of students from the Tulane School of Architecture. Grow Dat leadership began making annual visits to a dozen area schools, inviting students to apply for paid positions in the farming program. Each year since, dozens of young New Orleanians ages fifteen to twenty-four have answered that call.

Representing a variety of ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds, the participants form an unlikely team. Many of the youth arrive on the farm with no farming or gardening experience, and some have limited exposure to the fresh food they’ll be helping to grow. As they absorb lessons in regenerative farming practices, they also learn leadership skills, including how to give and receive honest feedback—gaining confidence in who they are as a person—within a safe, non-judgmental environment. 

In a city where schools and neighborhoods often lack diversity, youth participants learn to work cooperatively and communicate with people who are different than themselves. “We’re not trying to mute or diminish those differences but to celebrate them,” said Grow Dat Youth Farm Development Manager Lily Mejia. “When we get together and harness the power of those differences that's when we can transform ourselves and our communities.”

It's all about stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. “For some that might be working in the dirt and encountering bugs,” Mejia said. “For others it’s trying a new vegetable, public speaking, or just communicating with the person next to them. No one is ever forced to do anything, but this is a safe space to explore those challenges, if you want to. We're a team and we’ll support you. But you get to decide what your Grow Dat experience will look like.”

[Read another story about where youth, education, and the garden intersect: At Thrive Academy in Baton Rouge, students connect and grow with the garden ] 

Grow Dat Youth Farm operates under a tiered leadership program. The first tier, Core Leadership, runs from January to June during which around forty-eight participants learn to grow produce and participate in workshops on food justice, community leadership, and sustainable agriculture. Fifty percent of participants’ time is spent doing actual agricultural work in crews of about fifteen, and fifty percent is spent in educational workshops, field trips, and cooking classes. “They're getting an introduction to sustainable agriculture,” Mejia said. “But they're also practicing communication skills, getting acquainted with the link between climate change and food, and they're exploring the agricultural history of the land we're working on”—including the histories of the people who have stewarded it before them, the Indigenous peoples of the region, and Black people who were enslaved here. 

Those who finish Core Leadership can choose to pursue the ten month (September to June) Advanced Leadership Program, during which they’ll continue to work on the farm, stepping into the role of teaching the workshops and leading the farm tasks. “They are the facilitators now. They delegate farm tasks to Core Leadership participants and they plan and run our group meetings,” Mejia said. “It’s a great opportunity to continue growing their leadership skills.”

Alternatively, after Core Leadership, participants can choose to take part in the Seed Project in which about a dozen alumni work in small groups off campus for nine months (from September to May) completing projects of their choosing, so long as they fall within the Grow Dat values of sustainability, love of land, youth leadership, inclusion and multiculturalism, solidarity, and food justice. “Groups brainstorm together and design their project, set goals for their work, choose how to manage their project schedule and the budget we provide, and work out in the community, often as a cohort with other organizations,” Mejia said. “Projects might include social media engagement, entrepreneurship, education, culinary endeavors, food distribution systems, advocacy work, or food access.” All projects are presented at a graduation ceremony in May.  

"It's all about stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. For some that might be working in the dirt and encountering bugs. For others it’s trying a new vegetable, public speaking, or just communicating with the person next to them." —Lily Mejia

For eighteen-year-old participant, Kameron Benoit, the program’s impact came to fruition when he picked a tomato he’d actually grown. “Growing tomatoes is tedious, and the physical work was so much more than I expected,” he said. “But once they grow and you pick one off the vine, it’s so satisfying.” When he graduates, Benoit plans to apply to college to pursue a career in either therapy or nursing.

Working alongside him is another eighteen-year-old, Frankie Ratowitz, who’s been through Core Leadership, Advanced Leadership, and is currently working with the Seed Program. “I’ve been surprised at how much I can apply the things I’m learning in workshops to my life outside of Grow Dat,” Ratowitz said. "Visions Workshop helps you express your feelings and gives you strategies for talking about things that are hard to talk about. Field trips allowed us to attend things like an environmental summit in Baton Rouge, where I was able to talk to people in environmental organizations. We visited Pearl River Blues Farm and met the farmer, visited the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery, and are even learning to sew.” After high school graduation, Ratowitz plans to study environmental science, conservation, or forestry.

For the last two years, Grow Dat participants produced 50,000 pounds of fresh produce, selling eighty percent through their popular community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and distributing the other twenty percent through the Shared Harvest Program and to youth participants and their families. They also offer a fifty percent discount to anyone enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), to help make fresh produce more accessible.

[Read about another youth gardening program in New Orleans: Louisiana’s first Montessori-style garden school blossoms at Paradigm Gardens]

The Grow Dat facility has gained national attention with awards for the beauty, sustainability, and function of its design—including 2014 AIA Louisiana Honor and Members Choice Awards, a 2012 SEED Award, and the 2012 AIA New Orleans Design Award of Honor. The farm has hosted weddings and community events, and each spring they throw a farm-to-table dinner fundraiser where area chefs present a multi-course meal incorporating produce grown onsite. “Our participants lead farm tours that night,” Mejia said. “It's a chance for them to show the community all we’re doing here and how passionate they are about the work. ”

So, as traffic rockets along up I-610, down below on a little-known service road, young New Orleanians are learning—and teaching each other—cover cropping, composting, companion planting, and soil building practices as they transform their communities, themselves, and each other. “We're not recruiting young people with the intention of making them farmers,” Mejia said. “Some participants may choose that path. Others might want to explore sustainability in fashion design or expand their activism. They each get to decide how they will show up for their community.”  

growdatyouthfarm.org