The Garden Project Earth Stewards Program

Description

The Garden Project oversees a paid environmentally based job program for San Francisco residents between the ages of 13 – 15 called The Earth Stewards Program. The Garden Project’s mission is to empower young adults through environmentally based job training and life skills programming, while transforming the urban environment. The program offers paid, on the job training. Garden Project Earth Stewards Apprentices work in an intensive program, learning organic horticulture and landscaping skills. Apprentices work on a variety of projects each day – cultivating plants or vegetables, clearing brush, or working in the greenhouse. Apprentices work at the Garden Project Farm at the San Francisco County Jail San Bruno Complex in San Bruno, on the streets of San Francisco, in the Crystal Springs Watershed, and at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, on environmental projects that preserve and improve the health of San Franciscans and the local ecology. Plants grown by Apprentices are used on our city streets and in our parks. The Project donates all organic vegetables grown by program to local food pantries. Currently, 35 pantries ranging from Project Open Hand to the San Francisco Housing Authority, receive donations weekly. Garden Project Earth Stewards also have access to mentoring and tutoring with Garden Project staff.