Faith, Farming, and the Future: A church-garden project for youth development

Background: Rural Black youth face a future with high rates of chronic disease yet limited access to programs for prevention and treatment. Many seize the first opportunity to leave their rural homes for perceived opportunity elsewhere, particularly to avoid agricultural jobs they perceive as undesirable. This is exacerbated by a long history of discrimination against black farmers. Rebuilding the local food system is an enormous task but one that may have significant pay-off for addressing health disparities. Methods: We are conducting a community-based participatory research effort to reduce health disparities working with 4 rural Black churches (2 intervention, 2 delayed). Together, we applied for and received funding. We collected pre- and post-test data on diet, food alienation, empowerment, and BMI. The intervention youth conducted a community food security assessment, developed projects to reduce barriers to good food, gardened, and were provided education around cooking and nutrition. Results: Information on the youth food projects will be presented as will the differences in knowledge and attitudes about gardening and fruits and vegetables found between the two groups. We will also discuss lessons learned that we are applying to our work with the delayed intervention youth. Conclusions: The potential benefits of working with faith communities using local foods as a method to build healthy youth are numerous. Project implementation and participant motivation, however, can be challenging. For example, many of the youth were already participating in their church youth groups thereby increasing the likelihood of attendance. Other barriers, however, can still be present.