Sudbury’s urban farm teaches youth life skills, combats food insecurity

Sudbury youth learn how to grow food Flour Mill Community Farm runs a youth employment program to give adolescents the opportunity to learn about food & how to grow it

The Flour Mill Community Farm is located in the heart of the city of Greater Sudbury on Bruce Avenue.

The farm operates a youth employment program to give young people the opportunity to learn about food and how to grow it.

Food harvested is then sold at ‘pay-what-you-can’ prices to provide healthy food for people who may not otherwise have access to it.

ReThink Green now operates the farm and its summer youth program employs 15 young people ages 15-25.

“We use agriculture as a tool to empower youth to gain employment skills social skills development and empower them to learn about the food system and how to grow food,” said urban food coordinator Fionna Tough.

Dana Carbone, also with ReThink Green, said youth participating in the program learn a lot about food sovereignty.

“So knowing that there is a lot of issues with our food system and knowing that a lot of individuals can't actually access healthy food like the vegetables that we grow here,” since said.

“So trying to teach them even garden on their own at home.”

Aiden McLean, 18, is one of those youths. He is working his first summer job at the farm this year.

He told CTV News he enjoys planting, harvesting and learning about food.

“We learned about mushrooms,” McLean said.

“We actually watched a documentary that some mushrooms are healthy for you.”

In an effort to make healthy food more accessible to those living on a low income in the area, all produce and herbs harvested are offered at a weekly market where residents pay only what they can afford.

“The Flour Mill Community Farm seeks to help underserved communities with low-cost accessibility to fresh foods,” said ReThink Green’s communication manager David St. Georges.

“What it does is it makes the community involved in the solutions to create rural farming opportunities and that is farming surrounded by communities like this.”

The program has been running for seven years now and this year expanded operations to include a quarter-acre food garden in Wanup.

For more information on the farm, visit their social media pages.