For the past several years the Campbell County Extension Service has supported the Newport Youth Leadership Development (YLD) program with a “Farm to Table” focus. We would take these inner city youth to four local farms and to our Extension Service Educational Gardens and show them how seeds, vegetable transplants and farm animals are grown to provide us with the food we eat. With the onset of COVID-19 we were no longer able to do farm and garden visits but turned to virtual programing with limited face-to-face. Three Extension Agents representing: 4-H, Horticulture and Agriculture presented two -2 hour sessions for a total of 6 sessions over a 3 week period. 

Farm visits were replaced by a series of virtual farm tour videos using the Kentucky Farms Feed Me program.  Using Zoom, these videos were linked into the YLD classroom where students learned about food production from the farmer’s perspective. The videos focus on beef, dairy, corn, soybeans, poultry and fruit and vegetable production. A variety of seeds, plants, picture of farm animals as wells as end food products such as potatoes, sweet corn, cereal and cookies (to mention a few) were brought into the classroom to reinforce the Farm to Table theme. A survey was used with each video to stimulate learning and discussion. 16 students were reached with the virtual farm tour sessions.

In the 2 hour lesson on horticulture over a 2 day period, 12 students attended virtually to learn about horticulture and growing of plants. We discussed about food supply and were our foods comes from and highlighted the foods that the students eat regularly. Many of the students talked about enjoying fruits especially watermelon and how the sweet taste of them in the summer is much better. Which then lead into the conversation about growing and eating locally. To my surprise, many of the students were very interested and knowledge about eating fresh in season produce. A few of the students shared that their favorite fruits were tropical fruits like mango and bananas. This then lead to a great conversation about climate and planting zones. 

We continued our horticulture adventure with three hands on activities that they would take home and later report back their success. The youth learned about tropical houseplants and the care they need to grow. Similar to the tropical fruit conversation, the children were interested in caring for their plants so that the plants would live throughout our winters indoors. In our lesson we talked about the different plant parts and the importance of those parts in order for plants to survive. The children then learned and planted an air plant and were intrigued how these epiphytic plants survived without soil and absorb their nutrients through the air. Which also led to great conversation about environmental stewardship like the importance of recycling.  Our last horticulture project was using dried roses and lavender harvested from the Extension Educational Gardens and the youth made sachets. We discussed how many products that we use come from the farm, not just our food. That led the conversation that many products like our shampoos and clothes start with ingredients from the farm. These horticulture activities planted the seed of curiosity about their environment, their health, and community.

During the 2^nd week of our Farm to Table Series a total of 12 youth were reached through limited-in person instruction about the fundamentals of hydroponics.  The youth were divided into two different groups of six on two different days. The participants put themselves in the shoes of what a Plant Scientist does.   They were able to build their own hydroponic unit out of basic materials.  Throughout that process they learned about what a seed needs to germinate hydroponically, the parts of a seed, and how to make a seedling thrive after the germination process. 

Upon completion of the program youth were administered a Qualtrics Survey with a series of 7 questions to compare their comfort levels before and after their participation.  Later the youth shared photos of their plants germinating and continued to make their plants thrive with the nutrient solution that was provided.