Ed Davis Youth Farm Camp is a partnership program of the local Extension Horticulture Program and Scott C. Parks and Recreation’s Ed Davis Learning Center. The goal is to provide a motivating agriculture experiences for minority urban and suburban youth far removed from agricultural environment. This year the camp focused on increasing awareness of sustainable agriculture practices and providing race and gender matched role models in the represented fields. Youth were engaged in such activities as visiting the Kentucky State University Aquaculture Research program and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Pfeiffer State Fish Hatchery, UK Meat Lab, UK Plant Pathology Lab, and UK Educational Greenhouse, UK Dairy Farm. Elmwood Stock farm were they harvested fresh organic peas that would be used by a local chef for a restaurant’s menu that evening. Care and management of racehorses, and the workings of the racing industry as a whole. Ninety-eight percent of the participants had healthy understanding of the food systems (i.e. understanding their role and others in the food system) and from where their food comes.

The Farm experience encouraged responsibility and respect, rewarding children with merits of teamwork, self-confidence and exposure to diverse food systems that was unknown to their everyday lives. The farm camp program made positive impressions that will last a lifetime for the 41 youth attending, exceeding last year’s attendance by over 300%.

Throughout the program, care was taken to show students professionals in all ethnicities, sexes, genders, etc., as research shows that seeing race- and gender-matched role models can provide young people with a greater sense of the opportunities available to them in the world. A translator was provided for Hispanic youth attending with limited English.