Youth Community Agriculture Program

The Youth Community Agriculture Program (YCAP) provides young people, ages 16-21, with valuable employment opportunities with the goal of cultivating and equipping youth with skills to live healthy, productive lives, while they transform their food systems and communities.  

Through hands-on experience in farming, cooking, and community-building – participants learn to collaborate, communicate, and activate positive change. This program aims to foster a deeper connection to the environment and relationships within the food system, impacting young folks’ sense of community, health, taste buds, and their overall potential for success.  

Hosted at the Food Literacy’s Project farming site, the program runs across three seasons: Spring, Summer, and Fall. 

Spring and Fall YCAP: These sessions run for 14 weeks, with participants working an average of 12-20 hours per week, typically during after-school hours, offering the ability to balance school commitments. 

Summer YCAP: The Summer session spans 7 weeks, with participants working 30 hours per week, providing a more intensive, immersive, and full-time experience in food systems exploration.

Throughout their sessions of employment, all participants work collaboratively as part of the YCAP crew, engaging in activities such as growing and distributing fresh produce, developing their culinary skills, taking on participatory action research projects, as well as planning and implementing community engagement initiatives and supporting Field-to-Fork Club activities. However, there are several different opportunities within the program supporting participants as they take on varying levels of responsibility, leadership, and commitment: 

YCAP Crew Members:  Youth in this role participate in hands-on, peer to peer learning by engaging in program-related activities. Crew members are hired each session. 

YCAP Peer Mentors: Participants in this role are employed by each session and take on additional responsibilities supporting their peers, helping plan, guide or implement activities, and expanding their leadership skills.

YCAP Food Access Specialist: This individual focuses their engagement on food access and community outreach efforts including coordination of produce distribution, participation in farmers markets, and on-site urban farming maintenance tasks while also providing support to plan, guide or implement activities throughout all three seasons of YCAP.

YCAP Communications Specialist: This individual specializes in communications and community outreach efforts, with responsibilities of creating compelling written and visual content and resources to share, supporting YCAP-led social media and outreach efforts, and providing support to crew members throughout all three seasons of YCAP.

See examples of the crew’s Youth Participatory Action Research work products, including a FoodVision 2023 Community Survey Report, food access zine and a Photo Voice project.