PEACH Farm School gives at-risk youth a leg up

Life’s tests of strength and character can get the best of you or bring out your best. Luckily, for residents of Spokane, especially its farmers, Brightspirit Hendrix saw her experiences growing up in extreme poverty as opportunities from which to build a better life for herself and for her community. As a child in the poorer areas of Detroit, Hendrix knew what it was like to go hungry, and how vital a healthy accessible food system can be to a city’s residents—especially lower-income ones. So she created such a system in Spokane, and in the process, is giving at-risk youth the chance to build better lives for themselves and contribute to a better way of life for their communities. In 1999 Hendrix had created a non-profit called People for Environmental Action and Community Health (PEACH). PEACH helped lobby for environmental policy and educate parents on toxins to which their children were being exposed to. However, in 2004, she found herself at a crossroads with the mission of PEACH. “I knew I could easily get people riled up and doing something, but the fact is people can only hear so much,” said Hendrix. “You have to use something positive that they can wrap themselves around and they feel good about to begin reaching them on a deeper level. So I thought ‘Why not food?’” Since coming to Spokane, Hendrix had gained experience cultivating healthy food for the community at large after moving to Tolstoy Farm—a certified organic farm in Davenport—where she worked for seven years, eventually becoming a certified organic farmer. She also helped create the area’s first Community Supported Agriculture program. She wanted to use that experience, coupled with her first-hand knowledge of going hungry, to create a vibrant local food system that advances economic viability, community health, social equity, and sustainable agriculture. This vision came to fruition when she refocused PEACH’s mission to “creating broad-scale sustainable change” through food production and distribution—where there’s a seat for everyone at the table and always plenty to eat. Since then, in the spring of 2010, PEACH found its current home on 32 acres in Cheney—land made available by the landowner who lets PEACH farm the land under an agricultural lease agreement. The Farm is managed by Chrys Ostrander, director of farming, whom Hendrix had worked with during her time at Tolstoy Farms. It is here where PEACH will launch a nine-month workforce development program for low-income, at-risk 16-20 year olds. Called YOUF (Young Organic Urban Farmers) the program hires two to four youth to work at the Farm, beginning the first week of April, for $9 an hour, over an eight-month period. However, the benefits they receive will far outweigh their paycheck. “We will select participants through agencies working with marginalized youth and while we will provide the work site and mentoring, the agencies will provide the payroll,” said Hendrix. Mentors will include Hendrix and executive assistant, Bryan Brown—an AmeriCorps Vista employee who will teach the youth how to plant, harvest, and market the food produced on the farm. These youth will essentially become the mainstay of production at the PEACH Farm, as the number of volunteers fluctuates. During their time in the program, the YOUF participants will also learn work ethics, budgeting, wellness and nutrition—skills which will hopefully become permanent lessons and transfer easily to future schools and workplaces. “Our goal is to create life-long relationships, so the young farmers will come back for support and resources to help them succeed,” said Hendrix. If, at the end of the 8-month YOUF program, a participant decides they want to continue farming, he or she can apply to the PEACH 3-year apprentice program, and upon graduation, operate their own farm on land leased at a low rate from the Farmland Bank and Trust, a PEACH-related non-profit set up to preserve farm land through donations and bequests plus purchases using federal, state, municipal and foundation funding. PEACH Farm is currently the only land parcel in the Bank and Trust, however several pieces of land are currently being evaluated. Any land acquired by the trust is protected from non-agrarian development and preserved in perpetuity as an agricultural resource through a binding stewardship agreement and a working management plan maintained by PEACH. The Farm currently consists of 3 acres in vegetable production, a half-acre of cider trees, 3,000 berry plants, 5,000 bedding plants, a hoophouse and a greenhouse, outbuildings built with hand-made bricks of farm soil that house dairy goats, chickens, laying hens and ducks, and a seed-production garden, as well as diverse fields that provide pasture for the farm animals. Future plans include adding a creamery, a commercial kitchen for making value-added products, and a small dormitory for the apprentice program. Another part of the equation is distribution. “We figured out how to grow the food, and grow it well; what we haven’t completely figured out is how to create points of access,” said Hendrix. However, current efforts have already been impressive, including the Community Roots Market piloted by PEACH last year in the Hillyard area. With the intent of reaching low-income individuals, the market runs every Monday 3-5:30 p.m., May through October. PEACH operates the market as well as sells their produce. Community Roots vendors can provide low-income residents with reduced pricing (50 percent) on items they may not be able to purchase with EBT (low-income) or WIC (women, infants and children) vouchers. “This market was wildly successful and a lot of fun,” said Hendrix. Plans are set to re-open this May. PEACH also supplies two high-end distribution outlets, including the Liberty Lake Farmers Market and an informal market in the Eagle Ridge neighborhood. As well, The Farm has three Pre-Pay Community Supported Agriculture programs, where a participant receives a weekly distribution of farm-fresh produce and/or eggs in exchange for advance payment to the PEACH Farm. Then there’s Fresh Abundance, on North Division, a local, organic food store which Hendrix started in her living room with the delivery of produce boxes, which partially fund PEACH. Along with the responsibility of all these projects, Hendrix also has found time to return to college for her MBA. “It’s obvious this thing isn’t going to die, so I went back to school to become a business woman, rather than just this wild activist mom,” said Hendrix. “In order to be self-sustaining, a non-profit should be run like a business.”