There’s a new, exciting initiative at New Prairie High School. “Harvest Learning Initiative” involves teaching leadership skills, business planning, environmental issues and gardening to non college-bound youth.
Many young people, particularly those who either don’t have the grade point average or the financial means to be college bound, have fewer opportunities to receive a positive career experience. Further, if they don’t have the option for education beyond high school, their future employment opportunities are limited. They need more opportunities to help them succeed in a career as well as bolster their self-confidence.
There are many types of curriculum that could accomplish giving these youth career options, but this program connects that real need with growing food. This type of training is becoming increasingly important as our nation becomes more concerned about a healthy food supply, the increasing sensitivity of Americans buying local and supporting our local growers (thus the growing popularity of farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture), and the slumping economy, thus making the growing of food an important life skill in addition to a marketable skill for these young people moving forward in their education and careers beyond high school.
The USDA recently reported that 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure. The study paints a stark picture regarding the pervasiveness of hunger in our nation. “It is important to note that the USDA numbers … are 2007 figures and do not take into account the unprecedented economic crisis that our country is currently facing,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest). “We believe that this is just the beginning of a downward trend and we expect things to get worse before they get better.” Therefore, additional sources of healthy, reasonably priced food are a real human and market need in this area.
In general, vegetable gardens improve people’s quality of life by providing a catalyst for learning about nature and healthy eating, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying the school grounds, producing nutritious food, reducing food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise and education.
In addition to these benefits, teaching business and leadership skills to non-college-bound youth could provide a deeper sense of self-sufficiency and skills that can translate to the business world. This concept proposes to not only provide the skills related to gardening to these young people, but apply the concept toward coursework related to team building, developing and implementing a business plan, marketing, accounting and business writing.
One unique aspect of this concept is that students could actually take the final step in business planning and actually sell their product. Students could sell their products in one or more of the following ways:
– Applications would be made to local farmers markets to sell their product.
– Local restaurants.
– Through marketing efforts, individuals could buy directly from our students.
– Students will donate some of their harvest to feed the hungry.
The New Prairie school system is in the heart of farm country in Indiana, and yet experiences (as does the entire country) fewer and fewer young people going into the farming profession. The final appeal of such a program is to connect these young people to the roots of this rich wisdom but in a way that also provides practical, relevant and exciting business training.
The program is the concept of Roberta K. Jannsen, MA, Director of Shawnash Institute Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting people and the earth. Roberta recently moved from Chicago to her family farm, which she co-owns with her father in Rolling Prairie, though the farm has been in her family for 70 years and she spent much of her life in the area. Prior to moving here, she was VP of Continuing Education and Training at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), where she led and managed four continuing-education departments (Distance Education, Virtual Laboratory, Publications, Meetings and Exhibits) with 30 professional staff and a $15 million budget. The division was responsible for creating and implementing hundreds of continuing-education products in the above venues for the health information management profession.
Prior to that she was Executive Director of the Executive Education Department at Loyola University Chicago, where she designed and implemented hundreds of innovative adult education courses for schools and businesses in the State of Illinois, and in 1995, won the “Innovations in Continuing Education” award. She was at Loyola University Chicago from 1998 to 2006, and served in the same capacity at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1989 to 1998. She holds a master’s degree in education from DePaul University (magna cum laude) and a BA in sociology from University of Illinois at Chicago (summa cum laude).
Since leaving AHIMA, she has dedicated her career to combining her education, business and leadership background with her passion for food, land and farming issues. She is a member of the Chicago Food Policy Commission, the Evanston Food Policy Commission, consultant to UIC Extension and Illinois Community Colleges on the development of farm and food-related courses to the citizenry of Illinois, and was a Commissioner of the Oak Park Farmers Market from 2007 to 2009.
So why New Prairie High School? Over the years, Roberta kept hearing about how innovative it was and that stuck with her. After meeting with school board member Bernie Baltes, who introduced her to Dr. .Bender, Superintendent, and Clara Clark, Principal, as well as other faculty who will participate, it was a marvelous fit. Roberta has found them to be open and wonderful to work with. Though there are many challenges ahead, they approach those challenges with a “we’ll figure it out” mentality rather than a bureaucratic wall.
We know that if the larger community of adults participate, they too can embrace these young people and give them a chance they may not otherwise have had that their college-bound friends receive.
Roberta has had a wonderful welcome to LaPorte County. She has had nothing but open doors and open hearts. In addition to the high school dedicating land, she has had many other organizations and individuals who have offered to donate their time and talents to the initiative. Leadership LaPorte County will provide the leadership training, the Wills County Indiana Farm Bureau has offered to donate seeds, the LaPorte County Solid Waste District is donating compost, the county Soil and Water Conservation District will help teach environmental classes — but there are still needs. If you wish to volunteer to be on one of our community panels who may interview the students, critique the business plan, or help in the garden, please contact Roberta at rjannsen@csinet.net.
