Madison Zeng never expected that 10 weeks of her sophomore summer in college would be dedicated to digging in dirt.
“I had never held a hoe, I had never gardened before, had never worked with plants,” she said. “It’s something I never thought I would experience.” As a city kid who grew up in Queens, her first experience with community gardening was in Rochester — and, specifically, with the nonprofit Taproot Collective.
Zeng worked with Taproot through Urban Fellows, a civic engagement internship program through the University of Rochester. She worked daily in Taproot’s educational home garden, First Market Farm on First Street, and visited over 100 community garden sites across the city for a report planned for release in Summer 2025. In maintaining the space, Zeng learned how to water, plant and harvest the sometimes-literal fruits of her labor; on her first day, she got to enjoy the sweet victory of fresh-picked strawberries.
Her experience reflects the broader mission of Taproot, which is dedicated to engaging youth in urban agriculture and community building while addressing the invisible fragility of the current food system.
Founded in 2017, Taproot has always centered youth employment as a main tenet of its work. While Zeng was the first Urban Fellow to work with Taproot, she was one of over 30 young people contributing to their vision over the summer.
Through the RochesterWorks Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), Taproot will be employing 24 students this summer for their Community Food Team. Students are taught skills in gardening, landscaping, system design and carpentry. They grow native squashes and beans, learn how to prepare gardens for winter and are involved in the weekly planning process for each site they work on.
They are also pushed to increase their comfort zone in nature — which can include things as simple as eating new plants or becoming desensitized to bugs. One former intern wrote about her experience with the program in her college essay; another learned to tolerate tomatoes.
“Our goal is to prepare these youth with the leadership and job readiness skills that can prepare them for whatever is next, and to be able to graduate high school with a long-term relationship with an employer,” said Executive Director Nathaniel Mich. “We’re able to say, yeah, this kid started with us when he was 14, and hated the taste of green — and now he’s out here pulling edible leaves.”
Mich grew up in Rochester and fell in love with community gardening after working with the South Wedge Victory Yard. To them, community gardening is a linchpin for building support networks that transcend social divides.
“To this day, I’ve never found a better context for making friends and developing relationships with people who don’t look like me, who aren’t in my age or generation, who aren’t from my socio-economic background,” he said. “My best friends in that garden were 70-year-old ladies.”
Last year, Taproot supported 68 community gardens through the Community Food Team. The students that work with Taproot can find growth opportunities within the collective; through the ROC Your Job After School Program, Taproot has eight students who have been planning projects throughout the school year for the incoming cohort. For these students, the growing season is year-round. This includes weekly meetings, a winter retreat and a leadership position leading training at First Market Farm.
“We have kind of moved into our hibernation, where we come inside and are learning leadership skills that still relate to growing a garden,” said Youth Employment Program Manager Asimi Coleman. “They’re determining the things they want to grow and the things they want for this space.”
Coleman saw the transformative impact of gardening on youth firsthand growing up — their mother worked at a community center with a student-aided greenhouse.
“I was in college at the time, and I was able to see this big greenhouse on McCree Way and see the kids be really active in the growing and then taking what they grew and selling it at Westside Farmers Market,” they said. “It’s this very holistic program, and I would see the impact on not just them, but adults in the community who were able to support this business.”
Taproot’s initiatives also extend far beyond student employment, into the schools themselves. Last year, they partnered with RCSD educators and garden clubs to increase education in urban agriculture and food systems and expanded six community gardens throughout all four quadrants of the city. This attention, especially within areas that face food insecurity, puts the power back into the hands of the people.
“Community gardens are largely run by low-income folks in low-income neighborhoods,” said Mich. “Taproot is a direct investment in local resilient food systems that actually support people.” taprootcollective.org
Alyssa Koh is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
