Healthy City
Youth Initiative
sponsored by Friends of Burlington Gardens
The
Healthy City Youth Initiative is a hands-on farm-to-school program
designed
to teach basic cooking and gardening skills, boost physical activity
and increase healthy lifestyle choices for Burlington K-12 students.
The heart of the program - the half-acre Healthy City Youth Farm
located on the grounds of Hunt Middle School - provides spring and fall
programming for 380 students. The farm features 50 production beds, a large raspberry patch, and a flatbread oven built by New North End Youth Center students in 2011.
During the Healthy
City Summer Program,
teenagers learn job skills as they maintain and harvest the Youth Farm and other school gardens throughout the city. Healthy City also provides garden-based activities at district summer programs such as the SOAR program at the Integrated Arts Academy and the Summer Transitions Program at Burlington High School.
Project
Partners
 Through
Healthy City’s partnership in the Burlington School
Food
Project (BSFP), fresh vegetables from school gardens and area farms
are
integrated into cafeteria salad bars, harvest dinners and school-wide
taste tests.
The mission of the BSFP is to increase the amount of whole, fresh, and
local foods in school meals and to educate students and their families
about food, farming and nutrition. Partners include: Burlington Schools
Food Service, City Market/Onion River Co-op, Friends of Burlington
Gardens/Healthy City Youth Initiative, Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable
Schools Project, and VT FEED (Food Education Every Day).
Get Involved
Volunteer opportunities include prepping fresh vegetables for school
salad bars, teaching workshops and light garden work. You may also be
eligible to receive a 12% discount at City Market; fill out a
volunteer application today to find out more! Healthy City offers
internships during spring and
fall, and - as funding allows - paid internships during summer months.
For staff contact information, visit our FBG staff, board, and volunteers
page.
 Burlington Schools Community
The Burlington School District is made up of 4,400 students who attend 13 schools. Combined, these students speak more than 70 languages, and approximately half live in low income households that qualify for free or reduced price meals. A high percentage of students (estimated 70%) eat school meals daily, and a growing number of students consume the majority of their calories while at school.
By integrating food
education and hands-on gardening into Burlington schools, the program
increases access to healthy food for students and introduces basic
gardening skills, an important step in increasing food security.
Program
History and Support
The Healthy City Youth Initiative grew
from the Intervale Center’s
Healthy City Program, which provided more than 200 at-risk youths -
ages 13 to 16 - with summer employment and life skills training from
2002-2009 and coordinated a large-scale gleaning effort, harvesting
30,000 pounds of produce from 15 farms annually. In November 2009,
Healthy City moved to its new organizational home with Friends of
Burlington Gardens.
The Healthy City Youth Initiative is made possible through private grants, fee-for-service programs, and corporate sponsorships. Gardener’s Supply Company is the lead business sponsor of the program.
Individual donors also play a key role in continuing this important work. To make a charitable contribution online, please
visit the FBG donation page.
Thank you for your interest and support!
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