Our Mission

Provide Summer Internships to Dallas High School Students. Interns gain job and leadership skills, learn agricultural practices, and become aware of the nutritional needs of our community.

What We Do

1. We provide summer internships to Dallas High School students.

2. Our interns plan, develop and maintain 25’x50’ market gardens using sustainable gardening

methods.

3. We donate fresh produce to the hungry in our community.

Get A Garden Tour Garden 2020 Video

Why?

1. Our teens want jobs and need job training. -- Our young adults need jobs and job training. In a recent Polk County Youth Survey, the number one activity youth wanted was job opportunities. (2011/12 PolK County/Extension Youth Needs Assessment)

2. Our teens need to learn about food production and agriculture. -- ”Nowhere is our disconnectedness more evident than in our systems of food and farming. Most consumers, particularly younger consumers, have no sense of where their food actually comes from. They may know that farmers grow crops and livestock, and that someone processes and packages these crops and delivers food to grocery stores and restaurants, but they have little sense of what’s involved in this process.” (From: Reconnecting Consumers and Farmers in the Food System, John Ikerd)

3. Our community has a problem with hunger. -- About 1 in 8 Oregon households lacked consistent access to adequate amounts of nutritious food in 2009-2011. About 1 In 20 Oregon households experienced hunger during the same time period. (2013 USDA Hunger Report as reported by Oregon Food Bank)