This summer, these youth created three healthy snacks (pictured) and even designed labels for them!

Food justice, gender equality – these were once new concepts for many of the young people that we have encountered this summer, and I am proud to say that in those short weeks, they’ve been exposed to and adopted a new way of thinking about these issues.

The participants embarked on a number of tasks during the program – learning about food justice and healthy food options, creating promotional material for their end-of-summer presentation on what they’d learned, creating their own healthy food products,  learning and going about marketing said products, and so much more. They learned the steps involved to make a PSA on healthy food access, film terminology, and shooting techniques that resulted in the amazing videos they created. Throughout all their focus on their PSAs and food products (which they sold and collected quite a profit from!), they also discussed the importance of maintaining their sexual health and having good communication skills, in addition to participating in Brotherhood and Sisterhood groups that touched on gender equality and other social issues.

It was  a rough six weeks but one of the most rewarding that I as a peer facilitator – and hopefully the youth participants as well – have ever experienced. I am honored to have worked with them and look forward to seeing their names and faces go down in history as the leaders of the food revolution!

– Jasmine, Sasha Bruce Youthled Peer Facilitator