RootDown's New Entrepreneurial Program

RootDown's Youth Leaders hardly got to rest this summer before we lured them into our new Entrepreneurial Training Program.  RootDown's new Program Manager, Master Gardener and part-time Master DJ, Ali Bhai, reports from the business building front!... As one of the newest additions to the RootDown LA team, I am very excited to be co-creating RDLA's Youth Entrepreneurship Training with baker, businesswoman and master gardener, Ledette Gambini. 

In partnership with WeCAN's Urban Food Forest, we have developed this training with the goal of teaching our youth leaders about financial literacy, sustainable agriculture, community development, and, of course, building demand for healthy foods in South LA neighborhoods.

During the training, our youth will start their own urban farming business and in the process learn how to do market & competitive research, financial analysis, and PR & marketing of their fresh, local produce.  They will also learn how to design and make sustainable market gardens in sub-acre spaces, starting with WECAN's office backyard garden.  Already underway is an intensive sub-acre farming operation, which will hopefully be replicated in all of the backyards on 60th Street.  It's an ambitious project, and our youth are willing and more than capable to pull it off. 

RootDown Roadtrip to San Francisco

We took our Youth Leaders on a little retreat this past week, to celebrate an amazing first year at Jefferson High School and to check out another CA city food system - San Francisco!  We stopped by to say hello to LocalHarvest founder, Guillermo Payet, and visited with other youth leaders at FoodWhat?! in Santa Cruz.  We spent a night at Pie Ranch then had breakfast at the Mission Pie Shop in San Francisco.  Rainbow Grocery supplied us with our veggies for a stir fry we made later that night up in Point Reyes Station where we spent a night - tastings of local Cowgirl Creamery Cheese and Toby's Coffee were a treat.

The kids couldn't stop thanking us for the trip; highlights included a swim in the ocean & spotting a seal in Santa Cruz, strawberry picking, a sunset hike and sleeping under the stars at Pie Ranch, meeting other youth doing food systems work at FoodWhat?!, a first look at the Golden Gate bridge, and a night in Marin County, where almost all the food for purchase in local stores is sourced from local farms.

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RootDown LA Back on the Farm

This month, we finally got back to McGrath Family Farms with Vanya Hollis' health class from Manual Arts High School.  Vanya was the first teacher to host RootDown LA when we began our trial programming three years ago.  We showed up with cutting boards, veggies, chefs knives and our goofy Food Systems Mural - depicting the change in our food system the past 100 years.  Students learn in just one hour - we've gone from eating mostly nutrient-rich whole foods to eating processed foods containing too much sugar and chemicals that can make our bodies sick. Why don't we eat our veggies? Because they are NASTY if you don't know how to make them taste better.  So we cook, chop, dice and season foods the kids can't BELIEVE are healthy.  And we leave them asking for more.

The farm trips offer youth a chance to get out of the city and see where the healthiest food comes from - the earth!  Students giggle when they pull carrots from the ground and taste berries right off the bush.  They can't believe how GOOD, even lima beans taste when they are farm fresh and cooked well.

But food from the earth also can be grown in the city!

This summer, our Youth Leaders will gain entrepreneurial skills when we help WECAN further develop their Urban Food Forest - setting up a new supply of fresh foods grown right in South LA backyards, to RootDown's after school program and to our neighbors.