Tuesday morning I visited a community garden on the campus of the Youth Learning Center at 4471 Olive, just east of Taylor. The Center was started in 2003 by Willie Kent, the pastor of Community Fellowship Church just next door. The center runs an after-school academic and arts program for under-served children. Recently YLC added a vegetable garden that serves as a learning tool for the Summer Discovery Program.
During the school year approximately 120 children attend the after-school program, and the same number are enrolled in each of the three 2-week Summer Discovery Program sessions. When I visited Tuesday, there was an industrious group of children working on computers, and a lively soccer game out on the side lawn, above.
Garden plots, above, are offered to the community for purchase. For a contribution of $25 a year the donor gets to decide what to grow, purchases the seeds, and then works with the children to plant the plot. This enables the children to learn about agriculture, nutrition, and responsibility, as they water the plots every other day. Donors reap the bounty from their plot, though one donor-parent underwrote a bed just for the Summer Discovery children. I also learned that the neighborhood's Bowood Farms generously donated tomato plants to the program.
The Youth Learning Center is eager to establish a relationship with its neighbors and has joined the Central West End Association as a first step in the process. To foster more interaction, the public is invited to drop by this Friday from 4:30 to 7 p.m. to visit with the children and their parents as they discuss what they've learned working in the garden. And, there are still a few plots available, $25, which seems like a real bargain all the way around.
"Connect and Cultivate Community Garden Event," Friday, July 13, at the Youth Learning Center, 4471 Olive, (314) 531-9916. There is plenty of parking on the street and on a parking lot just west of the building.
Fabulous opportunity! I’m in. Just hope there’s a plot left.
Nice story.
Mary