Aug 19, 2009 7:12 pm US/Eastern
NYC Students Learn Farming On Governors Island
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Governors Island is a former military base that used to be closed to the public. In the last few years, though, their 172 acres have been transformed into a thriving arts and recreation community.
This year, an organic farm is sprouting too – tended by students who have traded their city skills for rakes and wheelbarrows.
Half a mile off the southern tip of Manhattan is an island oasis.
There's the cool of a lawn, and the fascination of a centuries-old fort. But for some students, mostly from nearby Brooklyn, it's a place that means hard work – in a good sense – and learning, too.
As part of a local educational program, the students have been nurturing crops on three acres, in one of the only commercial organic farms in New York City, on Governors Island.
"A lot of the kids that work here probably haven't seen a tomato unless it's in a supermarket," one organizer said.
Under Lady Liberty's watchful eye, the students will help bring to market, quite literally, the fruits of their labor.
"We actually started to see what we were seeding grow, and we got to harvest it and eat it," student Cyrus Rodriguez said. "I thought it was a great time, and yeah, I love to farm."
By the end of the growing season, tons of fruit and vegetables will be harvested. They'll help sustain the farm financially, pay the students, and, most importantly, provide a life-changing lesson for them.
"I got through another day, and that food could actually be helping somebody," student Narcisso Javier Rosado said.
"Before I worked on the farm, I didn't know about compost buckets and all that," Rodriguez said. "Now that I do work on the farm, I have a bucket in my house. All the fruit scraps go in there, and they come to the farm to make the soil richer."
"At the same time, they're gaining valuable skills that will help them in their education goals and obtain their employment goals," Ian Marvy, co-founder and executive director of the Added Value program, said.
"It kind of brings a sense of accomplishment that you got that little seed to grow and to sprout and have fruit and vegetables," student Guillermo Mentado said.
Governors Island is free and open to the public Friday through Sunday.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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