Calypso - Employing Alaskan Teens in Gardening (EATinG)

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Engaging Alaskan Teens in Gardening
(EATinG)

What is the EATinG Program?

Calypso created the Engaging Alaskan Teens in Gardening (EATinG) program in 2003 as a way to educate and empower students to grow food for themselves and the community. This program provides students with an innovative way to connect education, employment, food and community. The EATinG Program facilitates the development of a network of youth-run gardens in the Fairbanks’ schools, where students are paid to grow food and operate a small Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) program or a Farm Stand. Operating these gardens as student-run CSAs/Farm Stands ensures that the gardens are maintained during the summer and contributes significantly to the financial sustainability of the EATinG program. The EATinG program establishes a mutually beneficial relationship where schools have gardens, youth have meaningful employment and hands-on education opportunities and the community has access to locally grown food!

In 2006, twelve students were a part of the EATinG Program. In 2009, over 100 students were student gardeners. Together with the EATinG Supervisors, these students maintained the school gardens at Effie Kokrine Charter School, University Park Elementary School, Hunter Elementary, Woodriver Elementary, and Pearl Creek Elementary and raised food for themselves and 20 Fairbanks families! Please visit the Schoolyard Garden Initiative page for more on the history of EATinG and the Schoolyard Garden Initiative.

Look what we've grown in a school garden!

How to Get Involved
Are you . . .

A Student?
Apply to work in one of the gardens! We have hired our 2010 Student Gardeners, please check back next year
Contact Calypso by phone at 451-0691 or by e-mail for details!

Interested in working with youth?
Check back in November 2010 for our 2011 School position description.

A Community Member?
1. Financially support the EATinG Program through a membership donation or a special donation to EATinG. Click here to learn more!
2. Become an EATinG CSA shareholder! Click here for more information on our 2010 program
3. Volunteer with the EATinG Program. Visit our Volunteer page for more information!

A Business or Service Club?
Become a contributing sponsor of the EATinG program, through a donation of funds or in-kind donations. Visit the Support Calypso! page to learn more!

Top Ten Reasons to Work
at the EATinG Garden
(written by the 2006 EATinG Student Gardeners)

10. It’s the perfect place to face your fear of butterflies!
9. It’s fun to play in the dirt . . . um . . . SOIL!
8. The people!!
7. You get paid to have fun!
6. The grazing is great!
5. It’s purty in the garden!
4. We learn skills for life.
3. Veggies are good for you. They prevent scurvy.
2. Great food . . . great flowers . . . great flowers that are food.
1. One word: KOHLRABI.

I Wish I Could
by Blake Gurtler, 2006 EATinG Student Gardener

It has taken me five tries now to start this article, but I just can’t find the words. There is so much to say . . . so many memories. I wish I could walk you through them. Then I would show you . . .

What it’s like to come to work in the rain and see Ray with her hood up, working like a dog. Her cheeks and nose totally red, smiling as if she had found the meaning of life in that dark brown earth (maybe she did).
What it’s like to look at a new plant and hear Charles ask, “Can we eat it?”
To hand a shareholder their veggies and hear their comment on the size or whether it’s their favorite or not.
To hear Megan’s car pull up and run up to greet her.
To sit on the green grass during our five minute break and talk like we had known each other our whole lives.
To look at a green patch of earth and say, “I helped do that.”
To pick nasturtiums in the sun and to try to let a few get into the bag.
To have your accomplishments and hard work noticed.
To teach and to learn from everyone.
To let you feel the joy of getting a new worker and then the pang of loss when they leave.
To become a part of something more than yourself.
To become a part of a culture that you yourself made.
To grow up and still be a kid.
To be a gnomie.
Yes, I truly doubt I can properly convey how much working
at the Calypso EATinG garden has done for me, or even less
so how much it has meant, but perhaps one day you’ll find
out for yourself.