{"id":14412,"date":"2012-05-09T13:15:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T19:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=14412"},"modified":"2012-05-09T13:15:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T19:15:57","slug":"the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sweet Potato Project: Urban Agriculture as a Path Out of Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sweet-potatoes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14413\" title=\"sweet potatoes\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sweet-potatoes.jpg\" alt=\"sweet potatoes\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sweet-potatoes.jpg 500w, https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sweet-potatoes-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Whether you think terms like &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2012\/05\/what-is-an-urban-farm\/\">urban farming<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2011\/07\/urban-agriculture-chicago\/\">urban agriculture<\/a>&#8221; are accurate (a discussion we&#8217;ve had a couple of times), there&#8217;s no doubt that the movement to produce fresh food in urban spaces has inspired a lot of people to start growing their own food. Could that inspiration extend to young people in poor urban neighborhoods looking for economic alternatives to criminal activity? We&#8217;re about to find out here in St. Louis: former publisher and <em>Post-Dispatch<\/em> columnist Sylvester Brown, Jr., announced this Summer&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/sylvesterbrownjr.blogspot.com\/2012\/04\/call-out-for-community-change-sweet.html\">launch of The Sweet Potato Project<\/a> in North St. Louis on his blog.<\/p>\n<p>A joint effort of non-profit organizations <a href=\"http:\/\/whenwedreamtogether.com\">When We Dream Together<\/a> (which Brown founded) and\u00a0the North Area Community Development Corporation, the Sweet Potato Project is designed to expose urban youth to economic opportunities beyond drug dealing and other criminal enterprises. According to Brown,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This pilot program is designed to teach a group of high school-aged children that there are indeed opportunities within their reach. Young people will be paid a minimum wage salary during the summer to plant and harvest sweet potatoes, create a product and learn how to market and distribute what they\u2019ve created. We will nurture the spirit of entrepreneurism in kids who will go out and sell their product and receive commissions after the school year begins. The idea is to show them that there are viable (and legal) means within their communities in which to make money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s no doubt there are plenty of ways these organizations could&#8217;ve chosen to teach these lessons, so I&#8217;m thrilled to see that they&#8217;ve incorporated food production into the equation: the communities served by a program like this are also likely to be &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2011\/05\/mobile-market-brings-locally-grown-produce-to-food-deserts-in-chicago\/\">food deserts<\/a>.&#8221; Perhaps there&#8217;s a budding farmer or two in these neighborhoods that just needs some guidance and support.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to keep an eye on the development of this project; if you know of similar efforts (anywhere), please share them with us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Image credit:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/raeallen\/11740828\/\">RaeAllen<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/photopin.com\">photo pin<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\">cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could urban agriculture provide a viable economic alternative for kids in poor neighborhoods? St. Louis&#8217; The Sweet Potato Project will find out this Summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":14413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,9],"tags":[37,2204,12,5734,5735,2712,1777],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>St. Louis&#039; Sweet Potato Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can urban agriculture keep kids from choosing a life of crime? St. Louis&#039; Sweet Potato Project will find out, starting this Summer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St. Louis&#039; Sweet Potato Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can urban agriculture keep kids from choosing a life of crime? St. Louis&#039; Sweet Potato Project will find out, starting this Summer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-09T19:15:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sweet-potatoes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"The Sweet Potato Project: Urban Agriculture as a Path Out of Poverty\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T19:15:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-09T19:15:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"entrepreneurship\",\"non-profit\",\"st. louis\",\"sweet potato project\",\"sylvester brown jr.\",\"urban agriculture\",\"urban farming\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-sweet-potato-project-urban-agriculture-as-a-path-out-of-poverty\/\",\"name\":\"St. Louis' Sweet Potato Project\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T19:15:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-09T19:15:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Can urban agriculture keep kids from choosing a life of crime? 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