Green Star Enterprise project co-ordinator Shelly Sawyers holds callaloo, a leafy African green.
Last summer, Shynise Parchment's job was anything but typical. Instead of flipping burgers or bagging groceries, the 18-year-old Carleton University student spent her summer tending a community garden.
“It was definitely a lot of work but worth all the effort,” she says.
Parchment was one of seven high school students who participated in the Green Star Enterprise program.
Launched last summer, the program hires students to tend plots at the Kilborn allotment garden in the east end of the city, just south of Rockland. The students grow a variety of vegetables, including carrots, onions and beans and donate the produce to Ottawa community members and restaurants.
Thanks to a new grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, students such as Parchment will be able to participate in the program again this year. As part of their Spark Together for Healthy Kids initiative, the foundation awarded $5,000 to increase the program's profile in the Ottawa region.
While not a standard summer job, the program offers students valuable experiences, says project co-ordinator Shelly Sawyers. She says students learn they don’t always need to work for someone else. “If they have the talent, why not utilize it and make your own job?”
The program is a project of the Bronson Centre-based organization Jaku Konbit. Established in 2000, the non-profit organization’s goal is to support minority and disadvantaged youth in Ottawa. The organization focuses particularly on children and youth of African and Caribbean descent, but Sawyers says Green Star Enterprise is open to any student.
In addition to learning entrepreneurial skills, the program teaches students the importance of living a healthier lifestyle through exercise and a proper diet.
Sawyers says she hopes participants will pass this healthy-living message on to their peers. “We want them to go back to their friends. We feel that it’s a lot better coming from them than from adults telling what to do.”
The program’s health focus was what helped it receive the the Heart and Stroke Foundation grant. The foundation’s Spark Together initiative was created more than four years ago to combat the growing rates of childhood obesity in Ontario. The grant program has given more than $1.4 million to organizations that help children become more physically active and eat healthier.
The grant will be used to help the program connect with other community partners, says Sharon Brodovsky, director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
“Advocacy doesn’t always need a lot of money,” she explains. “The $5,000 can provide some of the seed funding to get the ball rolling.”
Sawyers says the grant will enable the program to go out into the community and meet with its members. She says they hope to visit schools and pass on the message about the importance of eating a proper diet.
Brodovsky agrees that having youth talk to their peers about healthy living is an important way to get the message out.
Parchment now studies social work at Carleton University. She says her time with Jaku Konbit influenced her decision on what to study.
“I see a lot of parallels between what I did last summer and what I study now.”
She says she hopes the program’s recent grant will help to inspire future students to find their passion. “I found what I love, and I hope they do too.”