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Youth-Led Vegetable Gardens Cultivate Hope for Community Hunger

Earth Day. Birds’ song. Sprouting seedlings - all harbingers of spring and new beginnings. And yet... colliding with this optimism is the harsh reality that hunger affects more of our local neighbors now, than at any other time.

Trellis For Tomorrow serves communities in Chester and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania in the areas of organic gardening, environmental education, and food system sustainability by engaging local middle/high school students to participate in this highly developed Youth Seeds Enterprise spring/summer program.

The 2021 Spring of Hope Challenge, which launched April 22, offers individuals, teams and families access to fun "at home" activities where they can connect with the earth, submit results of quizzes/games and secure eligible prizes.

Carole Landis Foundation is the matching sponsor for the one-month fundraising campaign which fundraises for all of the Trellis programs.

Trellis addresses hunger in communities with little or no access to nutrient-dense food ("food deserts"). The mission is to grow organic vegetables and give away the produce resulting from two harvests, annually. In addition to the Youth Seeds Enterprise program, the "Food For All" program builds community partnerships by engaging businesses, corporations, faith-based groups, other community clubs and members. Hundreds of volunteers care for numerous additional gardens throughout the region. Business leaders roll up their sleeves and grab shovels to participate in fighting hunger and bring employees and other folks together to grow gardens. The impact: they are helping to build stronger communities. Eighty-five tons of produce have been donated to thankful neighbors.

The Carole Landis Foundation Matching Sponsorship is a designated $4000 grant for Trellis’s 2021 Youth Seed Enterprise program (YSE). YSE is an "Earn while you learn" - the students gain career preparation skills, are compensated for their participation time, and share two nutritious meals a day during the summer. Core features of the program are organic gardening, the creation of youth-led enterprises as well as engaging curriculum that develops life development and entrepreneurial skills to prepare youth for success in work and life.

Covid-19 restrictions did not deter determined students and staff. Last spring and summer, four organic garden sites contributed over 8,000 pounds of nutrient-dense organic produce to support food justice initiatives in communities facing food insecurity and economic constraints. 5,500 youth have served in Trellis’s summer programs since 2009. The students develop compassion and resilience and learn about responsibility for their neighbors.

Learn more at Trellis4Tomorrow.org.

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