Growing produce and inspiring young leaders with Fresh Roots Farms
Rosalind Sadowski is the Youth Empowerment Manager at Fresh Roots, a non-profit organization working with school communities to grow farms. At Fresh Roots, they believe everyone deserves access to healthy food, land, and community.
Rosalind’s main job is running a program that empowers secondary school students to cultivate and steward ½ acre schoolyard farms for learning, community building and growing food. In the summer, they hire 30 high school students as part-time gardeners. These are often kids who are at risk , struggling at school, at home or socially, and kids with special needs.
“They are working on the farms with us, they're growing food cooking with chefs working at the farmers market, learning a bunch of food related skills, but that really are as essentially life skills that will hopefully help them grow themselves by growing good food.”
Rosalind remembers at five years old, dreaming of having a job as a meteorologist, “I was really excited about the weather report!” As she got older, her focus shifted. When she got to university, she focused on climate policy and community engagement, essentially, she was on the path to becoming an environmental lawyer.
“I was honestly pretty depressed by the time I was on my degree, because I just learned a whole lot about climate science and how the world was basically doomed. And then I was like, Okay, well, I can stew in that, or I can really see what can I do. O thought to myself, well, if the systems around me aren't going to create the change, I want to see, how can I make that happen, and working with food is a really powerful tool for that.”
“I still really believe in my ability, as well as my peers, and all of our ability to create change in the world. And I really see that in the young people that I work with.”
Rosalind is passionate about working with these kids and she truly believes that the work with Fresh Roots is making a difference in the world.
“Every seed that you plant is essentially hope for the future. You plant a seed, and you're hoping that something is going to grow. And all too often, the world says to you, you don't have any ability to do anything about this, like, these are problems that are bigger than you, or you, as a young person don't have a voice.This is empowering. These kids understand that they can plant a seed and they can look after it, they can feed themselves and not only can they feed themselves, they can feed their community.”
To learn more about Fresh Roots Farm, visit their website at: https://freshroots.ca/
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