SHIFT | The Young Growers Program.
Our Young Growers program supports young people to develop capability in social enterprise, applied horticulture and sustainability, and hospitality.
Young people are provided paid employment and learning experiences on local farms and a vegetable seed company, as well as in our social enterprise – Healthy Lunch Kitchen.
The SHIFT Young Growers program will engage and connect young people to their local food systems to improve their mental wellbeing, increasing knowledge of nutrition, food systems and security, production, and supply chains through growing and selling produce in a circular economy for SHIFT Healthy Lunch Kitchen reimagining school lunches.
We commenced the program in December 2021 with three young people from across the Hepburn Shire in Victoria taking part in this prototype project. The 9-month experience is over summer and autumn when produce harvesting and planting for the next season is optimal.
The program supports each young growers rotation between different sized vegetable and fruit production farms, and a vegetable seed company, as well as in the Healthy Lunch Kitchen cooking food for primary school lunches.
The overall vision is to empower youth through engagement and learning opportunities in applied horticulture and social enterprise, by using hands on learning within local settings.
SHIFT Young Growers aims to provide a different future for young people, through food. Young people are developing important insights and experience to gain employment on farms ongoing, and enter training programs like apprenticeships and TAFE study in Horticulture Production.
As an outcome of the first SHIFT Young Growers program we developed a SHIFT Traineeship which is an apprenticeship in a healthy food system and circular economy, we are working with TAFE to deliver a workplace based learning program.
SHIFT Young Growers aims to provide a different future for young people , through food. Young people are developing important insights through apprenticeship and TAFE certification.
Thank you to our donors and supporters and partners.
The SHIFT Young Growers Program would not be possible without the support of our generous donors, supporters and funders and partners.
If you would like to support the continued development and implementation of the SHIFT Young Growers Program please see our fundraising page or contact us.