With a generous grant in 2016 from the Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon, we were able to turn a vacant, weedy space next to the Teen Center into a beautiful Learning Garden. Getting youth involved with gardening has been shown to be beneficial in a number of ways such as helping foster responsibility, building wellbeing through interaction with nature, and encouraging them to be physically active.
The Teen Center Learning Garden has been very productive, supplying us with a bounty of vegetables, fruits, and herbs throughout the growing season. During our summer program we are able to pick different colors of fruits/vegetables to prepare tasting tables where youth learn what nutritional benefits those particular “colors” have to offer. Food grown in the garden are also incorporated regularly into our Teen Cuisine culinary skills program.
We’d like to give a special thanks to our local Winston Rainbow Garden Club for their generous support of our garden program!
To help support the Learning Garden as well as our many other fabulous youth programs, check out how you can get involved.