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November 19, 2020National collection Nov. 21-22
RestoreOKC is one of the national grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in the archdiocese. CCHD is the national anti-poverty program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, working to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ. It is overseen by the USCCB Domestic Justice and Human Development Committee for which Archbishop Coakley serves as chairman.
With support from CCHD, RestoreOKC created a program called Restore Farms that partners with the northeast side of Oklahoma City. The farms’ mission is to, “empower our youth with experiences in basic job skills, sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and incentivize graduation and higher education for long-term community opportunity.”
In northeast Oklahoma City, 73 percent of children live below the poverty level. The community also has the highest school dropout rates and incarceration rates in the nation. Children are struggling and being systemically left behind and have limited access to food compared to surrounding communities.
“People have a lot of assumptions as to why the youth in our community dropout of school; lazy, not smart enough. However, that is 100 percent not the truth for our interns. They are so smart; the truth is they are trying to meet their basic needs. We have kids who work to provide their family with food. School feels like a fantasy for them,” said Ann Miller, farm director of Restore Farms.
Restore Farms focuses on providing job training for youth in the community and healthy food access for the neighborhood.
Restore Farms hired 15 students in middle school and high school to intern at the farms. They learn about agriculture, landscaping and basic job skills. Most importantly, they learn responsibility and increase personal development alongside their peers.
Upon graduation from high school and the Restore Farms internship program, the interns can attend college with a full scholarship at one of the universities partnered with the program. Currently, Langston University is the only partnered university, but the program continues to grow. Restore Farms focuses on teaching this generation the importance of giving to their community, so the next generation has the confidence to continue doing the same.
A Restore Farm intern said their favorite part of the job is harvesting and cooking with the food that grows in the garden.
“We have guest chefs come and teach us how to cook, and I enjoy learning more about that because I want to become a chef.”
Another intern said their favorite part is landscaping because “the hard work you put into something becomes pretty.”
In addition to job training, Restore Farms creates and supplies healthy and affordable food. Restore Farms uses a grocery market, a community garden and organically grown food through their aquaponics system.
Programs like Restore Farms rely on grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to serve communities in the archdiocese.
To learn more about CCHD, go online to usccb.org/committees/catholic-campaign-human-development. Provide a gift through the envelop provided for the national collection on Nov. 21-22.
