Houghton Students Part of Urban Garden Green Team

HOUGHTON, N.Y. —Five Houghton College seniors spent their summer as Green Team members working in Buffalo, N.Y., with Massachusetts Avenue Project’s (MAP’S) Growing Green Initiative urban gardening projects.  

Houghton students Charlotte Stoll, Daniel Levis, Robin Evans, Rachel Sherer and Christy Tygert made up the Green Team. All five of these students were serving summer terms through the Western New York AmeriCorps and were a part of the 18 Houghton students and recent graduates involved in service in Buffalo this summer through AmeriCorps. 

The Green Team worked with inner city youth (14-18 year olds) who were employed through Buffalo’s summer youth program, teaching them how to garden and working with them on their various projects.  

Sherer worked with an outreach group, which publicized MAP’s events in the community and canvassed in the neighborhood around the garden to invite people to come to the weekly barbecues. She was also responsible for planning and preparing the meal for a community barbecue each week where people from the neighborhood came to the garden to eat with the Growing Green youth and see the progress in the garden.  

Stoll helped with the peer education group. Each week this group would plan a lesson for a "junior crew" of 8 to 12 year old children from the neighborhood. The lesson usually involved science experiments and learning about growing food.  

Levis worked with the business group. The youth in this group learned how to keep inventory and track sales of MAP's Super-duper Salsa and Amazing Chili Starter, which are sold in grocery stores throughout Buffalo. The business group also worked in the kitchen on developing a new product- a salad dressing, made from locally grown, organic ingredients.

Evans served as a volunteer coordinator for MAP. She was also instrumental in getting Buffalo Reuse to come board up a condemned house which is right down the street from Hope Refugee Services, making the block safer by keeping squatters and drug dealers out.

Tygert worked with the farm group, which was responsible for maintaining the garden, harvesting vegetables and learning techniques of organic gardening.

Once a week, each individual group spent time at Loaves and Fishes, a soup kitchen where the youth would help prepare and serve lunch. They also worked with Hope Refugee Services and at Queen City Farms, a group of houses and vacant lots in the heart of Buffalo to be used for the creation of an urban farm and transformational development.