Chicago Botanic Garden

Green Youth FarmEducation — Community Gardening

Helen J. McCorkle Jr. Green Youth Farm

PHOTO: McCorkle Jr.    PHOTO: McCorkle Jr.

Students plant summer-season crops after harvesting
early spring vegetables.
Beds are raised to different levels to accomodate a variety
of plantings and growth habits.

In 2006, the Chicago Botanic Garden expanded its existing relationship with the Helen J. McCorkle Elementary School to create the Jr. Green Youth Farm on the school’s campus. The Jr. Green Youth Farm is a school gardening model designed to integrate hands-on gardening experience with school culture and to provide long-term sustainability for the physical garden. Students spend time in the their “edible schoolyard” garden learning where food comes from and helping to create a beautiful and bountiful harvest of fresh vegetables out of previously neglected space.

An after-school garden club engages students in grades 2 to 5 one day per week as an extension of in-school garden activities. Students in the garden club help make design decisions in the spring, start seeds indoors, prepare garden soils, and plant the first round of crops. They also have the opportunity to do weekly harvests when they return to school in September, taking home a great bounty of produce to their families every fall.

For six weeks over summer vacation, a “junior” Green Youth Farm experience is available for students who want to take their garden education to the next level. In this program, 10 to 12 students from grades 6 to 8 are paid a stipend to work in the school garden and become urban farmers. Students help with planting and garden maintenance, learn about sustainable farming and food systems, take field trips to meet with experts in the field, and prepare snacks and lunches from the garden on a daily basis to encourage an understanding of good food and healthy eating habits.

PHOTO: Kion trellises tomatoes  

A Jr. Green Youth Farm student
trellises tomatoes in the garden. 		PHOTO: McCorkle greenhouse

The McCorkle school farm can get a head start on spring planting and
run year-round with the addition of a greenhouse to the facility.