DIRT Youth Program Teaches Kids Gardening, Health Eating

In partnership with Commonwealth Terrace Cooperative (CTC) Student Housing, UMN School of Social Work PhD Candidate Kenny Turck and Youth Studies intern Beth Avitia are offering UMN CTC DIRT Group, a nature-based youth program this summer. 

Every Tuesday, Kenny and Beth tend a youth garden plot at the St. Paul student housing cooperative down the road from Peters Hall. Under the supervision of the SSW students, the young gardeners have planted tomatillos, peppers, squash and thyme; explored nature and connection; taste tested new vegetables; and made tie-dye chefs hats and their own lunches.

"We are having a lot of fun and the youth participants appear to be experiencing meaningful social engagement according to their own self-reports, parental reports, and our own observations," said Turck. "In addition to the gardening and tie-dying chef’s hats, we have also made Margherita pizzas from scratch for one of our lunches and for another we made 3 kinds of bagels from scratch: Italian herb, Everything, and Mozzerella for making sandwiches for lunch that day."

Throughout the course, youth participants will also make ice cream, goats milk soap, sourdough bread, and cinnamon basil cookies, and cinnamon basil ice cream, according to Turk. Previously, Dean Engelman from Tangletown Gardens partnered with us to grow cinnamon basil for DIRT GROUP’s annual Winter Solstice Cinnamon Basil Cookie Project. 

Two Minnesota chefs, St. Cloud-based Erin Rae of Flower & Flour Bakery and Saint Joseph-based Mateo Mackbee from Krewe Restaurant are formulating the recipes for these cookies in order to make the recipe “official" so that campers can continue to make them at home.

Read more: 

• DIRT group youth program
• Tangletown Gardens
• Flower & Flour Bakery
• Krewe Restaurant