Students Combine Leadership & Farming to Make Summer Cash
Civic Works Real Food Farm’s Mission Thrive Summer is a five week summer job for Baltimore City high school students who are interested in staying active, engaged and healthy while working outside on an urban farm. Mission Thrive Summer is open to students who have completed 9th grade, 10th, or 11th grade. Teens will be farming, cooking, practicing yoga and fitness, and developing their leadership and job skills.
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—It’s summer in the city and for a group of Baltimore high school students it means getting an education about farming and making a few bucks for their hard work.
Its hands on at Real Food Farm for 27 high school students. They’re learning about farming and much more.
“So each day the group splits in half. The two crews go inside and we prepare lunch for each other and two crews are outside and they’re farming and learning about farming techniques,” said Brandin Bowden, the senior program manager for the Institute for Integrative Health.
Bowden says these students can make up to $200 a week growing their fruits and their knowledge about healthy eating.
“The program is basically centered around farming,” said Amenit Alvarez. “We go outside and weed and harvest the plants. It’s split up into two groups: one group goes outside farming, the other is cooking with the food that was farmed.”
Four of the students are back at Real Food Farm for a second summer, this time in leadership positions.
“We want to make sure this program was developing the students as individuals,” said Bowden. “They’re paid and I think that’s a big draw for a lot of students in the beginning especially when they don’t really understand the program. They’re paid through Youthworks and we hold them accountable, for a lot of them it’s their first job”.
“Hopefully I’ll learn more job skills and cooking skills and earn a paycheck,” says Owen Monahan, who’s attending the program.
The Mission Thrive Summer program lasts five weeks and takes place on eight acres in and around Clifton Park in Northeast Baltimore.
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