The Food Project, a Lincoln-based youth development and sustainable farming organization, has completed its 21st summer working with teens from throughout Greater Boston and the North Shore.
For nearly seven weeks, participants learned how to farm using sustainable methods, helping to grow and harvest more than 68,000 pounds of fresh produce. Alongside farming skills, they encountered peers from different walks of life.
Lexington High School student Emma Brinton, 16, first visited the Lincoln farm two years ago as part of a volunteer trip organized by one of her teachers.
“Since then, I have grown to really enjoy working on farms,” she said.
Lexington resident Emma Coolidge, 15, a student at the Cambridge School of Weston, said she enjoys being outdoors and working with others.
“I am passionate about working in a group setting. It creates the best opportunity to learn, teach, and grow,” Coolidge said.
LHS student Sara Sussman, 16, said she wanted an opportunity to do hard work and immerse herself in nature.
“I share the belief of Tolstoy and Thoreau that the most pure, sacred work is that work of manual labor on earth,” she said. “To learn how to plant, to nourish others, to join a community and to learn about myself in the process — this is more than an experience, it is a way of life!”