Placed in various spots at the St. Pete Youth Farm is art made by local St. Petersburg Artists or by the farm’s ambassadors.
Photo by Alisha Durosier | The Crow’s Nest
By Alisha Durosier
When the first group of teens met at the Enoch D. Davis Center regarding the St. Pete Youth Farm, collaboration manager, Carla Bristol, called them angels. Bristol painted them a picture of their unique position. She described a plane sitting on a runway fully fueled, and that all they had to do was get it off the ground. At this time, the St. Pete Youth Farm was a pilot program, but they were given almost an acre of land and at least a year’s worth of funding.
Within four years, St. Pete Youth Farm’s angels developed into its ambassadors, paid teens who worked on the farm Monday through Thursday, and the empty plot of land behind the Enoch D. Davis center became filled with rows of healthy plants, a greenhouse and vibrant multicolored art.
“That six-week pilot has now grown into what we see is more than over four years of work,” Bristol said. “It’s more than what I’d hoped for … nobody could have known that right here in the middle of, what they used to call midtown, that we are farm-raising Tilapia.”
It was just last year when the farm received electricity and established its greenhouse, after receiving a $25,000 grant from Ford Motor Company Fund along with additional funding from USF St. Petersburg. The greenhouse houses the farm’s farm-raised tilapia along with fruits and vegetables that are also fertilized by the fish, allowing plant growth year-round. The farm is even quickly becoming a hub for others to learn how to grow their own food, with Bristol leading mini garden workshops every month.
Photo by Alisha Durosier | The Crow’s Nest
“We didn’t have electricity, but we were still like we’re gonna get started,” Bristol said. “We weren’t sitting by hoping and praying, we were working, we were busy. We were like, let’s start cultivating the soil, let’s start planting plants.”
This upcoming season, the farm looks forward to making use of their new raised garden beds, and the city council’s recent approval for the farm to have chickens.
In 2019 after the idea of a youth-led urban farm was conceived by community members, Bristol, who was involved in the community and owned a local art gallery, was asked to spearhead the St. Pete Youth Farm. “The community called for me,” Bristol said.
Local grocery stores in the south St. Petersburg’s community redevelopment area (CRA) were closing and the community wanted to address the need for accessible nutritious produce. The City of St. Petersburg, the Pinellas Education Foundation, and the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete established the St. Pete Youth Farm and hired Bristol as the farm’s collaboration manager.
“People said ‘who better to work with the kids than you,’” Bristol said. “All my life, regardless of which corporate job, or how much money I was making, I always had opportunities for young people. So now here’s this opportunity for me to actually work with young people.”
Bristol, however, had no prior experience with gardening or farming. So, when it came to agriculture, she too became a student alongside the teens.
“I kept saying we’ll learn it together. It makes it easier when the kids don’t know something. I don’t know. So, I’m like, can you slow down? What does that term mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please repeat it in a way that we understand.” Bristol said. Alongside Bristol, works program assistant Meriem Ziad and farm supervisor, Kenzell Williams.
The St. Pete Youth Farm does just as the name implies, grows youth, acting as a training ground for its young ambassadors and volunteers.
Photo by Alisha Durosier | The Crow’s Nest
“We focus on all the areas of youth development, leadership, financial literacy, teamwork, team building, mental health, wellness, mindset, creativity,” Bristol said.
Monday afternoons at the farm have been reserved for Mental Health Mondays since the farm was a pilot program, when Bristol saw a need to address mental health among the farm’s youth.
“When I first took this over as a six-week pilot, within the first four weeks, I realized 33% of them had been Baker acted already,” Bristol said. “It wasn’t so much that they were Baker acted, it was that the other percentage of teens who had not been Baker acted, felt like the teens who were, that they’re crazy.”
Starting Sept. 11 Mental Health and Wellness Mondays will expand to incorporate members of the community as well.
Bristol also seeks to expose the teens to various forms of art and culture.
“I wanted to make sure that kids had a sense of self. The way we hear the Black history of St. Petersburg and everything that many adults grew up with kids in this era aren’t growing up with. And I wanted to be deliberate and intentional about infusing that, that in them,” Bristol said. “Access is important and access for minority kids is 100% important.”
To get involved visit st.peteyouthfarm.org to remain up to date on upcoming community workdays and other events.
