W.I.L.D. Program Teens

Break Ground on Florida Heritage Food Garden

By Jamie Lynn Lankenaur, Community Engagement Supervisor

The W.I.L.D. Program, a grant-funded youth leadership and environmental literacy program, is a part of the Education Department. Matt Day and Alex Hopf, the program’s specialist and assistant respectively, decided to extend the team’s classroom outside. Since the teens work throughout the school year and over the summer, Day and Hopf planned a garden. In true W.I.L.D. team fashion, the teens were a part of every step of the process.

Coordinating and collaborating with our Horticulture department (for plants and soil) and the Facilities department (for cutting the lumber and borrowing tools) they had the teens build two four-by-eight-feet garden beds and a shade structure, filled the beds with soil and began planting spring season plants.

“Many of the teens had never built anything before,” said Day. “This was their first time using hand and power tools. I am happy to say that they loved the experience!”

The first plant was okra, which sparked conversation among the team about whether they would eat this food. The conversation turned to fried okra, a staple and favorite in southern cooking. Around the same time the team was establishing the garden, they were introduced to the idea of a heritage food garden, which is growing in popularity in Florida. The idea is to grow foods that are historically and culturally valuable in the region and connect diverse populations to gardens and growing food—which ties in seamlessly with the W.I.L.D. Program’s mission. Thus, the idea of growing a heritage food garden here was born.

Every time a new team project is established, such as the garden, it comes with a valuable environmental lesson and these lessons are enriched by a social and cultural context. Getting teenagers building a garden, planting seeds and watching them grow to a point of cultivation can teach many skills, but in the vein of environmental literacy, allows an experiential connection to the topic of food resiliency and food deserts in their local community.

Although still in its initial stages, the W.I.L.D. Program is collaborating with the USDA-funded project at Santa Fe College entitled The Florida Heritage Foods Initiative: Connecting Local Food with Local Culture . The team also plans to visit community gardens sprouting and taking root all around Duval county, with a special focus on community gardens in historically underserved neighborhoods. These partnerships and community connections deepen lessons and make learning more relevant and connective for the teens.

Some of the more popular plants represented in a Florida heritage garden are sweet potatoes, collards, blackeyed peas and figs, while some lesser-known varieties are roselle, cassava and chayote. Each of these foods represent the diverse communities of Florida and bring awareness to regionally significant food crops linked historically and culturally to Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.