Juvenile Home Garden Provides Residents with Learning and Vegetables

MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or veteran status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thomas G. Coon, Director, MSU Extension, East Lansing,MI48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.

Juvenile Home garden provides residents with learning and vegetables

This past year Sydney Olson, MSU Extension program associate for the Family Nutrition Program, worked with residents of the Calhoun County Juvenile Home to plant a garden on the facility’s property. During the growing season Olson worked with the residents every two weeks to teach them about growing the vegetables and their nutritional value.

The on-site kitchen staff integrated the garden’s produce into its menus. The residents are required to help with a meal in the area of food preparation. One resident stated he had never tried some of the vegetables, but because he helped grow and harvest them he was willing to eat them and was surprised that he liked everything he tried.

Olson feels the gardening project is successful because of the kitchen staff’s enthusiasm for using the produce in the meals. Olson also enjoyed the fact that the residents were always able to tell her something they’d learned from the garden. This project “planted a seed” with the residents to use the skills they learned to raise their own produce someday and taught them to prepare and incorporate fresh vegetables into their diets.

This project was supported with a variety of community donations including fertilizer, compost, seeds, equipment and tools to use in the garden.

Contact: Sydney Olson, Family Nutrition

Program Associate

4-H Exploration Days helpsurban youth experience college life

4-H Exploration Days, an annual event held on the Michigan State University campus, allows youth to experience college life first-hand as they attend three days of classes.

This past year Calhoun County had one of the largest diverse delegations of 114 youth in attendance with 75 percenteligible for reduced-price or free lunches and about two-thirds representing the first generation in their families who plan to pursue higher education degrees.

Through community partnerships with Legacy Scholars, Michigan Works Youth Program, the 4-H Council and Substance Abuse Prevention Services,more than $14,000 in funding was provided to sponsor youths to attend this event.

These community organizations are a natural partnership with the 4-H program because of the shared goal of offering opportunities for youth to focus on higher education and career development.

As a pre-college event, Exploration days offers opportunities to develop responsibility, independence, decision-making, accountability, time management and teamwork skills through sessions ranging from emergency services careers to web design.

Many of the participants continue on to post-secondary education at many colleges across the state, including MSU, due to the positive experience they had as youths during Exploration Days.

Contact: Sherry Grice, 4-H Extension Educator

Stacie Powell, 4-H Extension Educator

Farm bill sessions provide valuable payment information for producers

The 2008 Farm Bill has significant impact to producers. Roger Betz, district Extension farm management educator housed in CalhounCounty, conducted 2008 Farm Bill Educational Sessions on the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) and Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) programs in the 16 counties that he serves.

ACRE gives two options that farm landlords and producers must decide regarding potential government program payments. The new ACRE program provides risk management when crop revenue is reduced from the average of the previous two years. Potential payments are available if actual state revenue falls below the guarantee of 90 percent of each state’s rolling benchmark revenue for each crop.The revenue is price times yield and the individual farm must also have a loss to qualify.

Producers must decide to give up 20 percent of their direct payments each year to be eligible for this potential payment.

Twenty-five to 85 producers have attended each session with each producer representing and average of 900 acres. Over the four yearlife of this farm bill, the benefit to each producer is expected to be more than $18,000 or over $10 million for all producers attending.

In addition, the federal disaster programs have been significantly revised to a new SURE program. Under this program, if the producer buys crop insurance there is an additional 15 or 20 percent coverage level as an added incentive to buy the crop insurance.

The government is trying to minimize the budget exposure of disaster programs by encouraging producers buy their own insurance. The benefit to producers will be huge in disaster situations. Many producers already qualify in 2008 with one specific producer expecting to receive nearly $14,000 in addition to his existing crop insurance indemnities.

Contact: Roger Betz, District Extension Farm Management Educator

4-H arts summer program develops youth mentors

This past summer the CalhounCounty4-H Program, using a youth leadership and mentoring model, worked with two severely distressed neighborhoods in Albion to provide a six-week summer day camp program.

These neighborhoods were targeted because they have limited opportunities for their youth to access the arts.

Ten youths involved with the Creative and Expressive Arts summer program served as leaders, mentors and instructors and designed and implemented the curriculum and content, which was then offered to fifth through ninth graders.

The program’s three disciplines--singing, dancing and acting--were designed by the youths to help the younger participants develop skills. The sessions were held four days a week, including a field trip to an arts-related professional organization or person.

The goals of this program are to provide opportunities for high school students to build their skills in leadership, relationship development, teamwork, mentorship and employment.

“One of my favorite parts of doing this is the sense of accomplishment both for ourselves as well as the participants that comes after we work for so long. Where else in Albion can youth go to express themselves like this?” said Cecilia Torres, a youth mentor.

“This program offers an opportunity for me to work one-on-one with youth. They learn to be accountable to a set of rules,” said Jacques Short, program coordinator. “There is a direct relationship between opportunities that come their way and positive behaviors such as showing up on time, being focused and being prepared. We keep the expectations way up.”

According to Sherry Grice, 4-H Extension educator, the 10 youth mentors have made a meaningful impact on the lives on the participants. Many of this year’s participants have asked how they can be selected to serve as a mentor in the future.

The program was funded by a Department of Human Services grant and MSU Extension.

Contact: Sherry Grice, 4-H Extension Educator

MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or veteran status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thomas G. Coon, Director, MSU Extension, East Lansing,MI48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.