Kids Grow Into Entrepreneurs through "Soil of Prosperity"

BELLE GLADE, Fla., May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Soil of Prosperity, a youth-operated farm in Belle Glade, will hold its inaugural produce sale on Thursday, May 26, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 227 SW 6^th St.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100604/CCPPLOGO )

This community unveiling is the culmination of a year-long effort to teach participants from the city's after-school program the basics of agriculture, water management, and entrepreneurship.

A website launched to support sustainable programming for Soil of Prosperity can be found at www.soilofprosperity.org.  

Over the past year, staffers and volunteers have transformed an abandoned lot into a one-third acre field that produced eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli and tomatoes.

Soil of Prosperity—the name chosen by the students-- is a component of the Lake Okeechobee Regional Initiative (LORI), a regional economic project led by the Collins Center for Public Policy with support from the South Florida Water Management District.  

"We're surrounded by farmland," said Leondrae Camel, program manager of the Youth Empowerment Center for the city.  "We are engendering civic pride by exposing today's youth to Florida's greatest assets, agriculture and water."

Camel pointed to strong support from the city of Belle Glade, US Sugar, and the Sugar Cane Growers Coop.  Volunteers from the Everglades Research Station of the University of Florida's Institute for Food and Agricultural Science have provided key support.

Now that the crop is harvested, "we want the community to support our youth during the last steps of the season, and that includes marketing and selling," Camel said.

Additionally, Soil of Prosperity students will participate in The Water Experience, a summer program of the water management district that will introduce youth to the many facets of water management and Everglades restoration.

"We are so proud of what's been accomplished," said Phil Bacon, vice president for regional and neighborhood initiatives at the Collins Center. "A vacant lot has been transformed into a place of productivity. This project can only grow and get better, not only in Belle Glade, but as a model for the entire LORI region."

The nonprofit Collins Center is independent, nonpartisan and dedicated to advancing the understanding of important public policy issues. In addition to traditional "think tank" programs that provide studies and analyses of key issues impacting our state, the Collins Center also turns these ideas and studies into concrete action. For information, visit www.CollinsCenter.org.

SOURCE Collins Center for Public Policy