On a small patch of land in an urban neighborhood in downtown Buffalo, teens are tending the gardens, working the greenhouse and cultivating fish in the acquaponics program. It’s all part of Growing Green, a non-profit program that’s part farmstand, part job-training and part community-builder.
Founder Diane Picard started the program to give teens in the neighborhood something fun and different and profitable to do – as well as to provide affordable and healthful food for residents. “Youth come to us with a perception of farming as being something that other people do,” Picard told Dark Rye, “but six weeks later, they’d be smiling.”
Teens tend the Growing Green urban garden in Buffalo, N.Y. (Photo by DARK RYE)
