We will stretch each dollar to help our youth experience another season filled with employment, entrepreneurship, organic growing, & service experiences!
Thank you again for supporting our youth to develop skills & confidence that will serve them for the rest of their lives – all while providing free fresh produce to our community.
See below for inspiring photos & heartwarming updates from our stellar 2019 season.
Thank you for your support!
Our program is absolutely a community effort, & you help make each opportunity possible for our kids!
We at Evanston Food Exchange are celebrating a successful 4th season of our partnership with Family Focus: the Foster St. Urban Agriculture Youth Program,an employment & entrepreneurship skill-building program for our brilliant Evanston youth.
A few highlights from our summer:
Our teen Camp Counselor employees collaborated with our 3rd-6th grade campers to:
cooking right in the garden with our very own Chef Q Ibraheem.
collaborating with Chef Q to cook a gourmet produce-focused Farm to Fork Dinner for their families & our supporters.
Practice their public speaking skills by Emceeing our Farm to Fork Dinner.
Market & selltheir produce at Evanston’s Farmer’s Market.
Personally donate their produce to community members each Wednesday.
Our teen Counselors built additional key employment & entrepreneurship skills through:
Putting their entrepreneurship skills into action.
Each teen independently found a recipe that incorporated garden produce, independently baked the recipe, & collaborated to price, market, & sell their baked goodsat the farmer’s market.
Learning about employment & entrepreneurship opportunities in the booming “farm to fork” industry through both:
An entrepreneurship workshop with successful entrepreneur Chef Q Ibraheem.
Identifying 2 key professional skills each teen wanted to build through our program, & giving/receiving weekly professional-level feedback on their progress toward building the skills they had identified. Skills built included:
Teamwork & team leadership.
Professional networking.
Long-term planning & time management.
In Our Community
Celebrate 10 Years of Food Grown Sustainably at Evanston Township High School!
Our friends at ETHS & The Talking Farm invite you to join them for their Community Garden Walk on Thursday, September 26.
5:30-6:00 – thank you to donors.
6 – 7:30 – garden tour (trolley available).
“This event will allow guests to tour [ETHS’] Edible Acre 1 & 2, the Edible Orchard & the Greenhouse, & learn all about ETHS’s organically grown produce programs. There will also be a Photo Scavenger Hunt with prizes & the chance to take home fresh produce, like bunches of lavender, basil & more!”
Meet at the Greenhouse/Planetarium Courtyard.
Contact Kim Minestra, ETHS Director of Nutrition Services, with any questions: minestrak@eths.k12.il.us