Harvesting Good Health
Author: Marybeth Howard with Bowdoin Street Health Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

In April 2010, a group of urban youth were selected as Healthy Champions by Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and asked to help increase neighborhood access to fresh produce by tending to their own plot of land in a nearby garden. The Healthy Champions program engages youth to become ambassadors of health within their families, schools, and community.

In addition to learning about the role they can play in creating positive change, “the garden teaches them about the vast benefits of incorporating healthy and affordable foods into their daily lives,” says Bowdoin Street Health Center Executive Director Adela Margules. “At the same time, they will help educate their peers in how these foods will serve to reduce prevalent health issues such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes and asthma in their neighborhood.” 

A month later, with support from the ConAgra Foods Foundation and others, the Healthy Champions launched their first Community Gardening Day. Festivities included mapping out garden plots, starting vegetable seeds in cups, and the first annual garden “Dig Day.” These youth leaders have begun to master gardening techniques such as finding appropriate soil composition and ideal seedling placement, the detriments of too much sunshine, and how to thin out plants. Now after months of weeding, watering, and waiting, the Healthy Champions are in the peak of harvest season, reaping basketfuls of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, basil, and lettuce.

The Healthy Champions are also teaching others about urban gardening, and have launched a mini-marketing campaign to promote fresh produce at the Bowdoin Geneva Farmers Market. (Editor’s Note: Be sure to watch the video above for more information about the Farmers Market.)