Growing Crops in the City: Urban Agriculture Aims at Helping Seattle’s at-Risk Youth

Direct Marketing Alternatives in an Urban Setting: A Case Study of Seattle Youth Garden Works

By Mykel Taylor, Doug Young, and Carol Miles

Except from news release:

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2010) — A case study published in the 2010 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education by professors at Washington State University examines the challenges one organization faced in maintaining an urban market garden. The journal is published by the American Society of Agronomy.

Since 1995, Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW) has employed young homeless individuals or those involved in the juvenile justice system. SYGW offers teens and young adults the opportunity to work, develop social skills, and eventually find stable employment or return to school. Uniting social programs and urban agriculture has been used in many cities with the aim of reducing poverty and increasing food security.

In the past, the organization lacked the resources to plan and implement a successful marketing campaign to maintain their small garden in the South Park Neighborhood of Seattle. With the help of faculty at Washington State University, a method of incorporating Community Supported Agriculture was proposed.

According to the study’s authors Mykel Taylor, Doug Young and Carol Miles, the Community Supported Agriculture program allows residents to subscribe to a weekly, delivered box of produce from SYGW’s garden for a growing season, usually from May to November. SYGW’s eight-year crop rotation plan will utilize their half acre space to provide a variety of crops while adhering to the USDA principles of organic agriculture.

Read the complete news release here here.

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