Dinah: Welcome to Farm to School Northeast, a podcast where we explore the creative ways that local food is getting into school cafeterias and how food system education is playing out in classrooms and school gardens across the Northeast. Today, we have the opportunity to learn about the annual FEAST Youth Summit in Vermont. FEAST stands for Food, Education, and Sustainable Thinking, and is an annual student organized event co-facilitated by Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Farm to School partners to connect high school students passionate about local food systems and climate action. In a single day gathering, students come together to take part in student-led hands-on topics such as microgreens cultivation, pollination, nutrition, cooking demonstrations, and advocacy. The day is spent with youth discussions and networking centered on environmental justice, farm-to-school programs, and sustainable agriculture. You'll hear first from Jen Cirillo, the Director of Professional Learning at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, and then get to hear recordings made by some of the youth participants.

So welcome, Jen. Can you introduce yourself to listeners and tell them a little bit of background about what has brought you to work on the Feast Youth Summit project?

Jen: Hi everybody. Yeah, Jen Cirillo here from Shelburne Farms, and I'm so glad to be talking with you today about the Feast Summit. So definitely a passion of a lot of the folks in the Farm to School network is farm to school, but the other thing that I think folks are really passionate about is working with and engaging youth in this work. And a lot of us recognize that that's the primary audience we hope to impact with our Farm to School efforts, and yet their voice is often left out of important conversations about what Farm to School looks like, what we're covering in Farm to School or learning in Farm to School when it comes to the classroom, what's being put on the menu in the cafeteria and who we're working with as community partners. And so more than four years ago, a group of us said, "Let's really figure out how we can do a better job as the adults working in Farm to School of engaging youth in Farm to School." And so that idea sparked an outreach to schools that we knew there was some really great stuff happening and that there was a high level of youth voice in the Farm to School work, and kind of spontaneously we created the FEAST Summit with youth in partnership with the Vermont Farm to School Network partners and their teachers.

Dinah: So could you describe some of the goals of the FIST Summit?

Jen: Well, for sure, one of the goals of the Farm to School Summit, the FEAST Summit is to engage youth voice directly from young people themselves to hear what they are most passionate about when it comes to food systems and food education, really to take cues from young people about what it should look like in schools and communities, what the opportunities are that they think are out there in their communities and what topics they're most interested in. So I would say one of the outcomes or goals is really to elevate youth voice in the food system and in food systems education. Another is to really reach some of the goals of the Vermont Farm to School Network, which is to realize the educational value of Farm to School. So engaging young people that are doing this work and learning about food systems and sustainability and having them teach each other, you will definitely hear from young people that learning from their peers is a super powerful way for them to deepen their own understanding of food systems.
So that's definitely a key outcome is to deepen our Farm to School work in Vermont. And then I think for the adults, one of the goals was to have some fun with Farm to School and working alongside young people is so inspiring and I think gives us, those of us in the network, our motivation to keep doing this work even when it can be difficult or even when the funding landscape changes, we are so excited by the young people that we're working with.

Dinah: So that leads to my next question, which is that it seems like building a space for youth to have a voice and connect is one of the main focuses of Feast. And I know Shelburne Farms and the other organizations in the Vermont Farm to School partnership are also very deeply invested in similar topics of sustainability and food education. So I wonder if you could speak to how you work to facilitate and support something that is youth led without taking over the process. And if you have any tips for adults who are listening on how to take a step back and allow for youth leadership when you might have ideas of how you want something to go.

Jen: What a great question. I think one of the things that we've all sort of learned together is that in order to really support, nurture, and elevate youth voice, oftentimes adults need to just step out of the way. So I think part of it is putting aside an exact outcome of what we think could happen and really being in a space of co-creation, of co-creating the experience because we're going to get to a better outcome when we do that. And then I think the other thing for what we've learned over the years is that building trust and relationship between the adult planning side of the team and the youth leaders is super important. And in our first year, we dove right in with the support of trusted educators and we were able to come out with an incredible first summit. In the second year, we had more folks interested, more young people interested, more adults interested in partnering to support this event.

And we had to be really mindful that because the adults were so excited about this, that they didn't take over what the youth energy was and their direction. And so in collaboration with the youth planners, we said two adults could join a team, but there needed to be as many, if not more youth on that team. And that adults are really, our primary role is support, asking questions and helping take down barriers for young people to be successful in the planning. And then in our third year, we developed a retreat where returning feast planners came and co-facilitated with two adults and they got to meet the other adults, but it was definitely a little bit more of the adults stepping back and letting the youth have planning retreat. And we cooked together and we planned together, but really tried as much as possible to put all of the work into the youth's hands, all the decision making power into the youth's hands by being on the side, just sort of putting our egos as adults to the side about what the outcomes are going to be or what the expectations are.
And I think in that process we realized we by leaps and bounds get way better outcomes. Higher engagement on the youth planners part, really high engagement on the students leading the workshops because they're submitting the workshop proposal to a group of peers. The youth do all the selection of those workshops, and so they're also picking things that they think are going to be interesting to other youth. And when you see that agenda, I have to tell you, every adult wants to go to that summit. And one of our roles as adults is to say, "Hey, this is a youth space." So if you're a teacher and you're coming along with a group of students or you're a 4-H leader and you're coming, we have a space for you that's not in the youth workshops because they want to lead those workshops by themselves, not have the teacher hovering to support them necessarily.
If they ask, that's different. But I think that was a request of the first year planners was, "Could you do something with all these adults so they're not lurking in the background?" So really just as adults being mindful of how much air time we have and how much our expectations are maybe overshadowing the youth's expectations and desires, and then really intentionally creating a space for adults to be there because they're coming with their students because they're often responsible for them during that period of time, but creating another opportunity for them that is also really rewarding. So they're getting to talk to other farm to school educators. This past year we had a workshop during the time that the youth are leading their workshops, so the teachers are getting to do something meaningful, but in a separate space.

Dinah: So it sounds like there are a lot of different roles for youth at the Feast Summit. We're going to hear from some youth now who have both been youth leaders in organizing the summit and also have led workshops and attended those workshops. And then after we hear from those youth, we're going to come back to you.

Harmony: My name is Harmony and I've led a workshop at the past two Feast Summits and was on the leadership team this past year. A youth-led summit is important to me because it is really fun to learn from your peers. It's also cool for educators to see their students educating. I also think since the environment is something that we really need to take care of, not just for now, but for the future generations, having those younger generations be educating one another and really uplifting and encouraging each other to take care of the planet in whatever way they are teaching about is really important. And some specific experiences in the summit that have stood out most to me are, first of all, having the guest speakers. I really enjoyed having speakers from NOFA, Vermont and Migrant Justice talk about the advocacy work that they do to make sure that farm workers have the rights they deserve and that people are fed throughout the state.

I have also really enjoyed being able to lead workshops. I think it's really awesome that any student group around the state can apply to lead a workshop at this summit about something that they care about or are knowledgeable in. And it's also just really enjoyable to eat a lunch made from local foods with a bunch of students from around the state. That's another awesome experience that's part of the summit. And connections that I've made at this summit that have helped me think about my actions and directions I take in activism. I was on the guest speaker committee for the planning group this year and being able to really meet with the people who came specifically from Migrant Justice to learn more about the intersectionality between environmental justice, agriculture and social justice, seeing where really farms of course are powered by the people. And while of course it does relate to environmentalism and agriculture, which is so important to our state's economy, it also is very connected to human rights and dignity.

So connecting with people at Migrant Justice throughout this summit has really made me care about the environmental and social aspects of climate justice and agriculture in Vermont. And overall, it's just a really fun experience to be with students from around the state on a beautiful day on a farm in Vermont, making food, teaching each other how to advocate for a better environmental future and really just enjoying the land and learning to steward and take care of it. It's a really lovely day.

Dinah: Okay, we are back to you, Jen. So how can youth get involved in this summit? What are the steps that they should take if they are listening or if an adult who is listening wants to share what they hear today and get youth involved?

Jen: We hope that folks that are coming from Vermont and are interested in the Feast Summit, they head over to the Vermont Farm to School Network website, vermontfarmtoschool.org, and check out that website where you'll find information about FEAST. And then on that, folks can join as attendees and we'll be posting registration for that on the website. They can join as youth planners. There's an application process that comes out in the fall every year and interested students apply. They're selected by youth that are returning from previous years as planners. And then you can also apply to do a workshop. We send out workshop solicitations a little bit later, typically in the January, February timeframe and ask folks to get creative about what topic, what ideas do you have that you think other youth would be interested in when it comes to farm to school? And we have seen such incredible topics from growing your own food, growing microgreens, or creating food products that students are selling, advocating for work at the state house and micro dairies.

So really anything that you think young people might be interested in, other young people might be interested, you can apply to do a workshop. So the Feast website or Feast on the Vermontfarmtoschool.org website is the place to go.

Dinah: Jen, I didn't ask you to describe what ages are able to attend.

Jen: With the youth planners have asked that youth that are of high school age be both planners and presenters. So this is a high school focus, high school aged young persons event planned by and delivered by high school aged students. So that's also who attends.

Dinah: Is there anything I haven't asked you that you would like to share?

Jen: I would just say for those folks that aren't in Vermont and aren't already thinking about Youth Voice and Farm to School, check out what's happening in your community, where youth are gathering, and invite them to co-create something with you. It doesn't have to be a FEAST Summit, it might be something else, but really harness the energy and the power of youth for transforming school's food systems and local food systems because I think that's where a lot of us are going to get our inspiration from is through engagement with youth. So whatever state you're in, find out where the youth are hanging out and do something cool with them.

Dinah: Thank you, Jen. Words to live by. Thank you so much for talking today about the Feast Summit, and I'm hoping that there are youth out there listening to this that get really excited or adults that know who they might want to reach out to to connect to this program. So thanks for taking time to talk.

Jen: Thanks for having me.

Dinah: This podcast is a production of the Northeast Farm to School Collaborative. For more information about this podcast or Farm to School in the Northeast, go to northeastfarmtoschool.org.