Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes youth living in and served by the David Douglas School District in East Portland, Oregon. DDSD is a school district whose student body is comprised 60%students of color in a city where just over 26% of the population identify as people of color. We specifically looked to support 5th graders throughout the school district, serving 600 students through the fall, winter and spring seasons of Farm School at Zenger Farm. At the high school level, we looked to serve David Douglas High School youth through several avenues, outlined here. We: hosted afterschool clubs for 32 DDHS students during the 2023/24 school year; offered garden tours and gardening sessions for an additional 36 students through student union involvement (Indigenous Student Union), middle school student high school visits and incoming freshmenduring the summer months; for our DDHS Growing Gardens Food System Internship, we outreached to all DDSD students at both the main campus (north and south campuses) and the Fir Ridge (alternative education) campusthrough classroom visits and fliers. Our focus was to invite all interested students and create an environment of belonging especiallyfor students of color, students identifying as part of the LGBTQIA2S+ communities and neurodiverse youth. We hosted six student interns,four of whom identified as BIPOC.We did not ask students to self identify as neurodivergent or queer. Five of the interns attend school at the DDHS main campuses, while one attends at the Fir Ridge campus. Each internparticipated in 64 hours of education and exposure to urban farming and food system career pathways and skill buliding. Beyond DDSD students, we also had the intent to offer increased access to fresh foods produced and distributed from school gardens with in 2.5 miles of the DDSD catchment area. These include food pantries at DDHS, Cherry Park,Lent, Whitman, Kelly, Davis and Glenfair elementary schools. Throughthe first year of this project, the high school interns contributed to food growing and sharing efforts at four of these sites. A final target audience is other Farm to School professionals and advocates. Through attending the NWYGN conference in April of 2024 our Teen Program Food Systems Educator was able to activelycontribute to the conversation about teen farm based programming in the Pacific Northwest. Changes/Problems:Major changes to the project were submitted through a letter to our NIFA SPECA Program Directorrequesting a change of scope in early summer 2024. These included shifting our summer outputs by eliminating our objective 2.a which was to host a 4 week elective course for incoming freshmen in the garden and replacingit with multiple garden tours and visits by summer school classes. Additionally we shifted our objective 2.b from hosting an 8 week internship to hosting 2 cohorts of a 4 week internship. Both changes increased the number of students impacted by the project. They also allowed our teens program teaching team to simplify their focus areaon creating an intesive and high qualityinternship experience. Both changes are further outlined in the PDF of our letter requesting this change in scope of work:2023-38414-41247 Scope of Work Change Request - AOR Signed, shared with Kendra Edwards July 17th, 2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training Activities: For the Zenger team, the project has provided more spaces for cross-departmental and cross-organizational collaboration to occur, particularly as Zenger Farm develops a teen leadership program approach. It has been valuable for the Youth Education team at Zenger Farm tounderstand how Growing Gardens effectively engages older youth through hands-oneducation and leadership development opportunities. Through the summer, ZF was able to host GG intern cohorts throughout the summer, for a total of sixinterns hosted.Additionally, we were able to host a day of land stewardship programming between ZFand GG interns. Much of the project was focused on the training offered through the Growing Gardens DDHS Food Systems Internship for teens during Summer, 2024. Students were exposed to the inner workings of the local food system and the urban agriculture scene in Portland, specifically focused on food producers of color. Furthermore, interns specifically learned the following skills and knowledge throughout their experiences: Topics interns were exposed to and trained on included but weren't limited to the following: Structure and parts of the food system; Social issues surrounding the food system; History of colonization in Oregon and land access barriers for people of color; Elements of Food Distribution; Soil health, fertilizers, and compost Pest and weed control, both organic and synthetic; Trellising; Irrigation methods both tradition and modern; Plant medicine and edible weeds Professional Development Activities: For the Growing Gardens team please see the answer above in the Accomplishment section, Objective 3a. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Outreach: David Douglas High School is a large high school with three campuses and departments that compartmentalize quite a bit. At times getting the word out about the Growing Gardens DDHS internship opportunity has proven challenging. This past school year, our staff at DDHS campus used a variety of methods to provide outreach to share about the opportunity. They posted fliers through out all three campuses. They also visited several classrooms and also specific student unions and clubs, and of course, promoted the opportunity during our afterschoolGarden and Cooking Clubs, which run throughout the school year. Results Dissemination: In 2025, wewill be sharing a report of internship impacts with David Douglas School District's Communications, Family Engagement and Strategic Partnership department. Additionally we will be sharing an impact report with our main point of contact at the high school, Assistant Principal Rolando Florez. Lastly we will be sharing out the report as well with former interns, the farms and businesses that contributed knowledge and expertise to the internship and to Growing Gardens' newsletter base. Furthermore, project impacts will be reported in our yearly Youth Grow Fact sheet, and Growing Gardens' end-of-year Impact Report. Curriculum products will be publicly available onour website and will be disseminated to interested parties through partnership conversations withother programs as well as through our ongoing participation in the Oregon Farm to School and Garden Network (OFSGN) and Portland Farm and Garden Network (PFGN). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Shared by Zenger Farm Education Program Director: "During the next reporting period, ZF will continue to host DDSD students and teachers for onsite NGSS aligned outdoor science curriculum. During Winter 2025, approximately 600 students will participate in watershed and water stewardship curriculum, learn aboutsalmon life cycles, and participate in a macroinvertebrate catch in the wetland onsite.Additionally, Education Program Coordinators will begin planning and projectcoordination for summer camp programming, including the 2025 Teen Leadershipprogram." Additionally, Growing Gardens plans to produce and publicly share an updated and enhanced Teen Program Manual and Internship Curriculum in order to grow the body of replicable teen focused urban farming and food system projects and program. We aim todevelopdrafts of both the manual and curriculum by the end of March 2025 and completean editing and revision process during the spring months. By July 15th our aim is to have a final draft with graphics and other images complete and ready for upload to our website. We also plan to reach out to previous interns to help us with this project by providing us with additional feedback and ideas to increase the effectiveness of our programming. We will then integrate their ideas into our drafts. If possible, leadership from Zenger Farm and Growing Gardens will meet atleast one more time before the end of this project to assess our successes and identify our areas for improved collaborative efforts.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Elementary programming-teach kids where food comes from: 1.a.-1.d Response provided by Zenger Farm Education Program Director before her November 2024 departure from Zenger. "From September 2023 to December 2024, ZF educated approximately 600 students during the fall, winter, and spring seasons of Farm School. We met with DDSD's Science and Health Coordinator twice each season, conducted student and teacher surveys, and hosted GG interns and staff onsite twice during the summer for day long learning experiences." Goal 2: Teen Internship developing teen food system leaders and developing agricultural career opportunities from within BIPOC communities in East Portland, OR. 2.a Change approved 7/19 to discontinue teaching the 9th grade counts program, in order to focus on increasing the quality of the internship experience. In place of co-teaching the elective course, our staff and interns invited and/or hosted 9th grade counts classes and various other clubs and groups to the school garden to share about the space as a resource for students and staff. Additionally we invited summer school teachers to utilize the garden space as a learning environment during the summer months. One highlight was hosting a tour of the space for a visiting group of middle schoolers who will attend David Douglas High School in future years. The interns enjoyed the experience of sharing their knowledge about the space especially since the students were a bit younger than them. 2.b Change approved 7/19 - This summer we opted to offer two 4-week cohorts instead of 1 8-week cohort. We hired 6 DDHS students, 3 students per cohort. Cohort 1 ran June 24-July 18, with a June 20th orientation day. Cohort 2 ran July 29-August 21 with a June 21st orientation day. We recruited and hired a total of 6 interns, 3 participated in cohort #1, and 3 participated in cohort #2. All 6 interns successfully completed the internship. 2.c. Both cohorts spent ample time caring for the two food production gardens on the David Douglas High School campus. Between the cohorts, they cared for a total of six Title 1 elementary partner school garden sites and one hospital garden site managed by Growing Gardens. Additionally, they harvested and shared produce with the high school food pantry on Thursdays. Through these experiences, students were exposed to different food production layouts. 2.d While interns were providing garden care at each site they attended, they received mentorship from Growing Gardens staff members. This was a natural part of the process, with conversations about career possibilities and about Portland Area resources coming up easily as the teams gardened together. All told, six Growing Gardens team members were able to provide mentorship to the students. We did not assign traditional mentors, but rather let the students gravitate toward the staff members they were most comfortable talking to. Similar mentorship opportunities happened during some of the guest speaker visits and excursions to farms and farmers markets. 2.e & f The following sites were visited during the internship: Native Gathering Garden, NE Portland: designed and utilized by indigenous Portlanders, and also enjoyed bynon-native Portlanders, this garden is managed by the City of Portland and was built using the wisdom and traditions from this land dating back time immemorial. Interns learned from the garden manager about how the space is used to gather in community andharvest first foods. Zenger Farm, SE Portland, near DDHS. First, interns worked on the farm withZF's Farmer Interns, young adults exploring the food system and urban agriculture careers through a 9 month onsite experience. They had the chance to ask farmer interns about their experiences and interests as well as their pathways after high school. Afterwards, they met several ZF education team members who sharedabout their jobs and career pathways. Interns also learned how CSAs work, having the opportunity to help harvest and pack for Zenger's CSA program. Kindness Farm, SE Portland, near DDHS: at Kindness Farm the interns experienced a small urban farm that is a collaboration between a private land owner and a non-profit with a mission to provide free, fresh and culturally affirming food to low income immigrant communities in the area. Come Thru Market: Inner SE Portland, BIPOC farmers and food producer market: Interns were exposed to a unique market that centers BIPOC producers and farmers to sell their produce. This highlighted local efforts to increase market opportunities for local area BIPOC farmers. At Come Thru, students were able to hear from the market manager. Providence Hospital's Garden of Giving: Students met Roma, the Growing Gardens Garden Coordinator at the Garden of Giving and supported the garden with stewardship of the space. They gained exposure to the connection between production gardening and preventative health care. Guest Chef, Thuy Pham, Thuy, who is a vegan chef, focusingon Vietnamese Vegan cuisine, shared her story as a Vietnamese refugee immigrant, and how her food values and cultural roots have intertwined to move her toward her own career as a chef, restaurant owner and local area food system leader. Goal 3: Partnership and curriculum building for teen programming 3.a. Our lead Food System Educator who supervised the interns had the opportunity to attend the Oregon Farm to School Network Conference in February 2024 and attended sessions that provided support on both food production and supporting student empowerment and leadership development. Additionally in April 2024, Growing Gardens other Food System Educator, Lindsey Gohd, had the opportunity to attend the NW Youth Gardening Network 1-day conference in Olympia, Washington which focused specifically on serving teens through farm based educational efforts. 3.b Yearlong community connection outreach led to a rich line up of intern field trips and guest presenters. Five of the businesses, organizations or projects visited are BIPOC led and run. The other, Kindness Farm is a queer-immigrant led organization. The Zenger Farm Education Program Director also shared that "This project has ensured that the partner organizations are more effectively communicating about our interrelated farm to school and garden education programs in DDSD schools. By providing more spaces for collaboration and meeting, we are able to reduce overlap and innovate our programs to best serve the needs of students." In fact for Growing Gardens, reaching out to others in the Farm to School world andthe Portland local food system arenahas really had a positive impact on collaborative efforts beyond that of Zenger and Growing Gardens. In particular it helped us work more closely with Kindness Farms and also Thuy Pham. 3.c Change approved 7/19: This summer we developed an enhanced 4 week internship plan that created a more focused and impactful experience for participating youth. 3.d Throughout the internship, check-in meetings at the beginning and end each day helped our staff gauge student learning and provided formative guidance for any adjustments needed. At the end of each internship, interns completed an exit interview consisting of 7 questions. Questions will be included in the Program Manual completed by the end of this project. 3.e To date, we have gathered our curricular resources, and past internship manuals and are beginning to draft a refined teen program model and curriculum to share publicly.

Publications