Help Wanted: Young urban farmers for $1,800 per month, no experience necessary
A very unique program for Green City Force has announced it is accepting applicants for its 14th year “to join a service corps that is built around community, climate resilience and environmental stewardship.”
Urban Farming
“Any NYCHA resident between the ages of 18 and 24 who has a high school diploma or GED is eligible to apply for one of the 70 spots for the upcoming Green City Force crew. The current application cycle will close at the end of March, and training will begin in April.
For a $1,800 monthly stipend, the hires enter a six-month full-time program where they spend four days out of the week as AmeriCorps members tilling the NYCHA gardens, which can be as small as a half-acre plot at the Wagner Houses in East Harlem or as large as nearly two acres at the Bayview Houses in Canarsie.”
“In addition to the stipend, participants can earn more than $4,000 toward college, a free monthly Metrocard and the opportunity to obtain national certifications, including from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The program also provides access to training for technical skills such as green building construction.”
What a great way to get young people interested in a career path in agriculture while teaching them the steps necessary to raise food for their families. My wife and I “ran” a program at our house when our children were young. They built raised-bed gardens in our backyard and then selected the vegetables they wanted to plant. They were responsible for watering and weeding, as well as harvesting crops.
They also were introduced to “visitors” to the gardens. They still remember seeing their first praying mantis living among the peppers doing his part to protect the peppers by eating insects.
We then took it one step further and took the tomatoes and bell peppers and slowly roasted them in the oven before adding them to a large soup pot with freshly picked oregano and onions from the garden. Add in some garlic cloves and let it cook all day long under slow heat. At the end of the day, we filled Ziploc bags with the cooled sauce, marked the bags with the date and contents, and stored them in the freezer for “instant spaghetti sauce” and a quick dinner.
Another favorite was to pick the produce fresh and set up an assembly line in the kitchen and made a few dozen burritos to be frozen and used for school lunches.
Today we now have three grandchildren that help us water, weed, and harvest our planting “table” on the back porch. Their favorite part is getting bags of tomatoes and peppers to take home to their mom and dad for use in upcoming dinners.
It must be getting near lunch – I am getting hungry,
