News and Events--Urban Youth Harvest

PUEBLO launches pilot project with Youth Uprising

In July, PUEBLO collaborated with Youth Uprising to work with four teenagers who are employed as part of the Mayor's Summer Jobs Program to harvest excess produce grown in Oakland and deliver it to low-income seniors who live in East Oakland. These workers created the name for the project -- Urban Youth Harvest---and not only harvested over 350 pounds of fruit donated by Oakland residents but also participated in designing the outreach flyers and researching recipes for healthy dishes that utilize the fruit being distributed. Youth Uprising produced a video of this project that will be used to promote it next year, with the hope that increased funding witll allow the program to be both expanded and broadened to include experts in nutrition, environmental justice and business being brought into the curriculum. Conversations with the Trina Barton of Mayor Dellums' staff, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley and other local officials and leaders indicate broad support for this innovative program, and we will look forward to collaborating with both public and private sectors in the coming months.

For more information about unequal access to healthy foods and other initiatives to address this problem, see: