Youth Empowerment
Nourish the Flathead strives to create powerful and purposeful opportunities for regional youth to grow and distribute local produce while expanding their knowledge of food systems. We seek to actively engage youth in food system education and direct action by involving them in projects that analyze the food system and food related issues in their communities. Using farming/gardening as an important basis for developing transferable skills – we provide projects that engage youth as leaders in addressing and resolving problems in their schools and in their communities. We accomplish this by partnering with local schools, community organizations, faith based groups, therapeutic boarding schools & agencies.
We use the title: Stand up, Dig in(SUDI) to describe the youth programming component of Nourish the Flathead. SUDI creates opportunities for
- support access to and grow healthy foods that truly nourish people, communities, and the earth
- learn about our food system
- begin to develop leadership skills and the capacity to become agents of social change
- to promote community through community service and community gatherings centered around the NTF community garden
This spring (April 16th, 2011) NTF will host the Global Youth Service Day in partnership with Montana Conservation Corps, FVCC, The Center for Restorative Youth Justice, Montana Academy and other local youth organizations. This event will bring over 60 students and other youth leaders from across the Flathead Valley to develop a youth network dedicated to providing nutritious and locally produced food for themselves and their communities – including families in need. Global Youth Service Day will provide an opportunity for youth to come together to continue to expand the
YEP - Youth Entrepreneurial Project
YEP is a partner of Nourish the Flathead and focuses on educating today’s youths to be better citizens and leaders of their communities; by concentrating on projects that involve local food systems, and how those systems work with local businesses and resturuants. These students have an opportunity to receive hands-on training on one of the most pertinent and powerful aspects of our daily life- food. The goal of YEP is to provide opportunities for youth to grow, design, create, and market their own YEP food product line to be distributed throughout the
NTF assists youth in understanding the food system, the impact of their food choices and the importance of making sound nutritional choices for physical and emotional health. Through YEP, youth are encouraged to develop the capacity to make a meaningful contribution to their communities while developing viable skills and sense of work ethic to strengthen the valley’s workforce.
