K-12 Resources

City Fruit partners with local youth programs with the goals of reconnecting youth to the power of their local environment and empowering youth to strengthen their relationships with our local food systems.

Environmental education and youth mentorship partners

Young-Women Empowered — GROW

Neighborhood House High Point — STUDIO

Danny Woo Community Garden — WILD

Beacon Food Forest

Tilth Alliance

City of Seattle — SYEP program

Seattle Parks and Recreation Urban Food Systems

North Seattle Boys and Girls Club

Green Plate Special

South Park Garden Squad

Atlantic Street Family Center

Rainier Beach Community Center

Queen Anne Elementary School

Highland Park Elementary School

Partnership and Programming

Youth programming is centered around supporting existing youth and food justice programs. The programming consists of experiential learning activities with each of our program partners throughout the year. City Fruit staff will collaboratively build an experience customized to needs identified by partners within the local community. Depending on the season, students learn about the issues of our urban orchard including orchard stewardship, human impact on the environment, cooking & nutrition, food security, and even GIS mapping.

Youth Fruit Tree Stewards (YFTS)

Through a grant for 2022, City Fruit is now developing our Youth Fruit Tree Stewards (YFTS) program! The YFTS program is a a youth-focused version of our Master Fruit Tree Steward program, which covers technical fruit tree care skills such as pruning, planting, harvest, and pest management. Roll-out of the program begins summer 2022 with partnering organization, Young-Women Empowered. Parents and educators interested in enrolling youth (grades 6+) in future cohorts of this program are welcome to reach out to Tiare at [email protected].

Urban Fruit Guardians (UFG)

We are also designing a summer-camp style education program for youth (grades 3-5) that takes place in Seattle orchards and supports learning in food justice and orchard education. The lesson plans developed under our Urban Fruit Guardians (UFG) program will be available for free download once finalized! To learn more about the program and register your youth or youth cohort, please visit our UFG webpage or contact Spencer at [email protected].

Youth Employment

In addition to educational programming, City Fruit is committed to building a sustainable path to employment. City Fruit currently participates in the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the Youth Employment & Service Learning (YESL) program, and the Teens in Public Service (TIPS) program. Young adults can apply to participate as lead harvesters and learn how to become a local urban food leader as part of the Great Seattle Fruit Harvest. Interested individuals should inquire and apply on the SYEP, YESL, and TIPS programs sites.