Do you know of any local youth groups who are already gardening or who might enjoy it? Reve Dele is looking for about 5 groups of 10 to participate in the nutrition, permaculture, and cooperative development training. Please reach out to Reve Dele at marjani.dele@gmail.comif you have any ideas.

The Teen Farming Cooperative is a new project to address the lack of access to healthy snacks and lack of economic opportunities among teens in the DC Metro Area. We are developing a training to teach teens to grow sunflowers sustainably, harvest the seeds and build their own small businesses marketing their organic, locally produced sunflower seeds. Participants who experience this training will not only learn about nutrition and learn to grow their own nutritious snacks, they will develop their own business cooperative and through a simulation experience, marketing their product and creating their own jobs.

Training Event – Feb / March 2013: Nature’s Friends will coordinate an 8 hour training event which introduces teens to the sunflower seed segment of the snack food industry and guides them into creating a market niche for themselves. The earth stewardship portion of the training occurs when students apply permaculture principles while creating micro-climates with sunflower guilds. Participants will also engage in a simulation of the cooperative business structures historically used in farming.