Farming feeds neighbors and cultivates leaders.
The Food and Farm Program empowers youth to unite with their community to address the complex issues of hunger, nutrition, food access, sustainable agriculture, and responsible land use.
The Food and Farm Program is a dynamic youth development, diversified agriculture and food security initiative.
We engage young people in organic farming and culinary education on our historic 400-acre campus in Richmond Vermont where we grow organically certified vegetables and pasture-raised chickens that are distributed to more than 400 families through our nationally recognized Health Care Share project.
The Heath Care Share is a public health initiative that connects Vermont families who experience barriers to accessing locally grown produce or have a diet-related disease with a weekly vegetable share they pick up at partnering medical centers. Read more about the Health Care Share here.
We also raise laying hens for eggs, pigs for meat, and additional vegetables, flowers, and herbs that we sell through our vibrant, on-site farm stand.
Each year the program provides approximately 65 employment opportunities to youth and young adults from Vermont and around the country who are essential to the daily operations of the farm.
In addition to farming, the program has a strong food component which seeks to deepen the connection between the work we do in the field and the food on our plates.
These projects are made possible through VYCC’s partnership with medical centers around the state, AmeriCorps and SerVermont.
VYCC didn’t just teach me how to farm and about healthy food, it also taught me how to interact with co-workers, how to socialize, how to be a good employee and how to create good connections with co-workers. People who work on the VYCC farm crew are not just co-workers to me, I see them as friends and family.”
— RoZe