Sprouts of Hope: Youth Leadership on Food Issues
On January 30th, youth gathered to discuss food issues important to them. Joanne Hart, a volunteer with the Go Getter program, organized this event to showcase the issues in her community, while sharing resources and skills.
Go Getters is a youth leadership project to increase community service and civic engagement among young adults, hosted by the Community Sector Council. Hart noted youth often struggle against the perception that they are not engaged, yet many programs may not meet the needs of youth or understand how to reach them effectively.
About the issues
Food Animator Ryan Steeves shared an overview of food security issues and impacts in St. John’s. This set the stage for small group discussion. The list of challenges was long, and a common theme was managing increased responsibilities for food shopping and cooking, while juggling demands of post-secondary education and limited income opportunities. Youth relied on many different programs and services in their communities and were also volunteers themselves.
At the event, many different community assets and strategies for making the most of limited budgets were discussed. Youth shared their knowledge of community programs, informal sharing groups online, and strategies like discount shopping, bulk buying and transportation through the MUN Shuttle bus.
Participants in discussion about youth issues
From elections to lending libraries
When asked about solutions, the themes of knowledge and advocacy were important. Youth wanted to have more conversations about food security during elections, “We recognize that a lot of things are only Band-Aids, and don’t get to the root of the problem.”, said organizer Joanne Hart.
For themselves, many people identified a need for education on food and an interest in sharing it online. Using emerging social media platforms like TikTok makes information more accessible to youth.
Innovative program ideas included creating a lending library of kitchen equipment. For example, sharing items like blenders, slow cookers, which are expensive, used infrequently, or bulky to store could help reduce costs to trying new recipes.
Sprouts of Hope
As a way to share information and skills hands on, Ryan and Joanne demonstrated a way of sprouting seeds for fresh eating at home. They shared the many types of sprouts, sources for supplies, and people were excited to learn more for themselves!
Full instructions were included with kits for everyone to take home and people left eager to try growing the sprouts.
Hart’s main takeaway was that youth are engaged in food issues and note that youth often struggle against the perception that they are not engaged. She says,
“To have all their ideas on offer, even at such a small event, it shows that youth do care, they want change - they want better”
Thanks to Joanne, Ryan, and all the Go Getters who made this event possible!
Seeds in the bottom of a glass jar, ready to be sprouted into edible greens.