Omaha’s youth garden is at Sherman Community Center, which is adjacent to Sherman Elementary School and in a very low-income neighborhood. The program was initiated as a partnership between the city Recreation Department, the school, and City Sprouts, a local nonprofit organization that builds community gardens and conducts educational gardening programs for youth. The 60 to 80 children in the program are in grades kindergarten through six and attend either the school’s summer school program or the recreation center’s summer day camp. Three adult staff run the program. Two are provided by City Sprouts and one by the city. The program currently has a total of 24 beds — 18 beds for the youth to work in and six raised beds for individuals with physical handicaps.

The program was faced with a significant challenge almost immediately. The garden is located in a flood retention area for the Missouri River. The river started flooding in May when planting should have taken place. However, with city staff focused on sandbagging the city in preparation for a major flood, which fortunately did not occur, the garden did not get planted until July. Despite this setback no time was wasted. The children were busily engaged in alternative gardening activities, such as making worm beds and container planting. They also had a Name the Garden contest. When the garden is officially dedicated, the winning name will be printed on a sign.

In addition to teaching the children gardening skills, nutrition, and how to cook their produce, program staff plan to make use of farmers’ markets in two ways. First, they plan to set up a free market in the neighborhood to share the produce. There are no local grocery stores in the neighborhood and this will help residents stretch their budgets by giving them fresh food. Second, they hope to sell their produce at other farmers’ markets in Omaha to generate income that would help sustain the program.

Staff hope to build an intergenerational component into the program. Some seniors who regularly meet at the Sherman Community Center have seen the garden and have expressed an interest in being involved. Staff hope to be able to expand the program so that children and seniors work together. The NRPA grant has been used to buy materials to build the beds and for the contract with City Sprouts to provide the educational programming component. The program is also planning to raise additional funds with the help of City Sprouts. Since city departments are not allowed to solicit private funding, City Sprouts may be able to obtain donations from local businesses.