
¡Cultiva! Youth
get a jump on the 2006 growing season
by starting seeds in the greenhouse.
We had a great 2007 summer season. Our summer ended very quickly this year, as the schools went back after only 9 weeks of summer vacation to re-adjust their schedule. We managed to fit quite a bit into this brief summer and here are some highlights of our 2007 season of the Cultiva! Youth Project.
Youth Leaders
Eleven Youth Leaders worked year round with Cultiva to plan and implement the program. In the spring they interviewed and hired 42 additional teens to work for the summer.
We have hired six new Youth Leaders for 2008 they are:
Chris Briardy
Paul McCudden
Lucas Pelle
Rachel Smith
Sam Streeter
Kyle Wilschusen
And we have six returning Youth Leaders who have been working hard with ¡Cultiva! for many years
Maria Cabeza (4 years)
Sebastian Cabeza (3 years)
Sonya Hueftle (3 Years)
Carolina Lasater (5 years)
Bernabe Soto (5 years)
Elena Zamora (2 years)
Farmer’s Market
We continued to improve our earned-income sources of revenue for ¡Cultiva! We wanted to really increase our spring Farmer’s Market sales by having plant starts for sale, and the Youth Leaders researched and picked vegetable varieties to appeal to market shoppers. We had our highest grossing Farmer’s Market weekly sales ever—one market grossed over $800, shattering our previous record of just under $500! We also carefully studied our Farmer’s Market sales records from 2006 when planning our field plantings. The youth planted more of the vegetables that were in demand, and decreased rows of veggies that were consistently left over at the end of Markets. We’ve been tailoring our vegetable varieties to the preferences of customers and have seen increased sales as a result. With all this hard work we managed to increase our Farmer’s Market revenue by almost 30%.
Leadership Skills:
The Youth Leaders did an amazing job this summer leading garden projects and managing groups of their peers. Each of the ¡Cultiva! summer participants was responsible for leading at least one game, activity or lesson for the younger children. It is always an amazing transformation to witness as the teens step into a new role and mentor the younger children. Through these activities the youth learn public speaking, effective communication and group management skills and perhaps most importantly, feel empowered as they are looked up to as role models and teachers.