Earn2Learn

Gardening & Wellness

Encompassing our youth with healthy living habits through mindful gardening.

Our Earn2Learn Gardening & Wellness program educates our youth on healthy eating habits, the importance of sustainability, composting, and horticulture in hopes for them to implement a healthy lifestyle in the future. This is a seasonal 6-week gardening and financial literacy program where kids are educated on the life cycle of plants and in turn receive a stipend as compensation.

Why gardening?

Those living in poverty are more prone to unhealthy eating habits and malnutrition caused by social and economic determinants almost completely out of their control. We understand that poverty strikes hard at every angle and at any attempt to achieve wellness. The reality of living in poverty includes surviving off of heavily processed cheap food items that can ultimately lead to the development of diseases.

Evidence from Brown University’s Department of Economics shows that everyone develops long-term eating habits at a young age. Thus, training the minds and habits of our youth at an early age towards alternatives is an absolute necessity.

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Lessons from Earn2Learn

Healthy Eating Habits

Declared as a food desert by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bayview district lacks fresh produce for low-income families. Families turn to corner stores for processed foods, causing obesity and higher health risks. We teach our youth that healthy eating habits come with healthy life habits that make sense for their continued wellbeing.
Financial Literacy

Through our Earn2Learn program, our youth learn the importance of financial literacy to help build good decision-making habits, independency and to avoid financial debt in the future. Our youth are rewarded an amount each day they attend a gardening lesson and are matched with how much they save up by the end of the program.
Farm to Table

With each season, our youth get the opportunity to plant their own seeds, water vegetable beds, harvest the fruits of their labor, and enjoy a nice homemade meal straight from our community garden. Showing them the lifecycle of our edible garden helps our youth build a stronger connection with nature.

Benefits of Gardening

Builds self-understanding, patience, and confidence from achieving their goals and enjoying the food they’ve grown.
Reduces stress and helps heal generational trauma.
Instills healthy eating habits by learning about the different foods they harvest.
Teaches responsibility from caring for plants and our environment.

Back to the Roots: Black Farmers

As an organization that mainly serves Black youth, we aim to teach them cultural traditions and expose them to the rich history of their ancestors. Educating youth on cultural awareness helps them develop a positive sense of identity and belonging while building self-esteem.

Through gardening, our youth are able to connect with the long history of Black farmers in America including the extraordinary imprint they left on the farming industry and the obstacles they faced in gaining the right to own farmland.

Post Slavery

For centuries, the connection between African-Americans and agriculture was tainted by the institution of slavery and the exploitative labor systems that continued in the years following the abolition of slavery. In the modern day, however, farming has become a way for African-Americans to reclaim a piece of history and promote community health and healing.
– The Corps Network
Impact of the pandemic

Due to the pandemic, food insecurity in the Black community increased. An estimated 24% of the Black community experienced food insecurity in 2020. Black children are almost three times more likely to live in a food-insecure household than white children.
— Feeding America
Food insecurity

Even though farmers of color now account for only 2% of the agricultural land, Black farmers are drawing strength from their long history of agricultural production as a strategy to address food insecurity and improve the health of local communities.
— Feeding America