One of the most rewarding gifts I received after helping to start the Sweet Potato Project last year was the affirmation that I can indeed impact the lives of young people. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve given numerous classroom presentations and was aware that I could speak to and perhaps inspire young people. But last year I realized that my 55 years of life and 25 years of “progressive” journalism can have a huge effect on the lives of kids who look like me or whose lives mirror the impoverished circumstances of my youth.

This year, the North Area Community Development Corporation would like to share this powerful experience. You may be degreed or not. You may be an entrepreneur, business owner, professor, cook, experienced mentor, long-time counselor…or not. We’re looking for anyone and everyone who understands the particular circumstances and challenges of so-called “at-risk” youth who’ve been raised in environments that sap their dreams and foster feelings of hopelessness and low self-esteem.

“I learned that there are a lot of ways you can get a product out there and get them sold.

– Charles, 15

This summer, we are looking for those who understand that our youth are brilliant but haven’t learned to put their God-given talents in motion.  We seek educators, presenters, mentors, parents, residents and community stakeholders-no matter race, creed or gender-who have grown tired of seeing our future locked up, locked out or sent to early graves.   We want partners who will help us plant seeds of independence and economic vitality in areas consumed by poverty and long-starved of resources and creative imagination.

Fund-raising is a big challenge but what I love most about the Sweet Potato Project is its grassroots genesis. We began last year with a call out to concerned individuals, asking that “each one, teach one.”

Allow me to share a few words about those who responded:

Anthony Neal, president of Educational Equity Consultants reached out to his colleagues and graciously helped arrange classroom lessons and presentations. Out of that group came Benjamin Gandhi-Shepard who shared his expertise in photography and website design. Muhammad K. Raqib’s transition from a dysfunctional student to the co-founder an organization that’s determined to provide guidance and success training for young people resonated with our youth.

“The presenters gave us positive activities and provided a different look at what’s out there and what’s possible.

-Marquita, age 19

The 2012 class learned lessons in business, leadership, history, economics, career development, conflict resolution, music production and more from gracious community volunteers.

Airline pilot, entrepreneur and visionary Dr. Gerald Higginbotham tediously connected the dots between history, culture and community economics. Jamaican-born motivational speaker, Richard Cross, Nicole Adewale and LaWanda Jones of ABNA Engineering stressed the importance of education with Ms. Adewale serving as our very own Donald Trump during the “Urban Apprentice” contest. Youth counselors, Charles Alphin and Bolanle Ambonisye patiently showed the kids alternatives to violence with conflict resolution techniques. Benita Arceneaux, Mimzy Hebron, Nato Caliph and Koran and wife LaPortcia Bolden with Street Dreamz Music studio used music, art and creative expression to help our youth tap into their own unique communication and artistic skills.

Karen Davis, the regional horticulture specialist with the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Urban Impact Center St. Louis, provided the necessary knowledge about planting and harvesting nutritious sweet potatoes. And I can’t discount the value of those who just spent time with our youth such as city resident Barbara Cole who served as the trusted and ever-present den mother for our kids.

“I got maturity, experience on establishing a hard foundation and running a business.”

- Keon, age 18

This year, we have been blessed to host classes at St. Louis Catholic Academy with the support of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church near Shreve in North St. Louis. We will have access to the school’s classrooms, computers, gym and kitchen. We can now take the input from our students last year and offer more structured lessons, activities and exercises. We also plan to increase our yield by inviting city residents to the plant sweet potatoes that we will purchase to produce the products created by our kids.

“I learned to speak up more. Get more involved and connect with my fellow peers in the program.”

- Darryeon Bishop, 19

The Sweet Potato Project is only the first step in an effort to accelerate a food-based economy in low-income communities in our region.  We’re reaching out to those who can reach and teach youth about the possibilities and potential outside our doors. In a very real sense, our youth serve as an inspiration to adults and as a catalyst to prove that food can be grown and products can be created within these areas.

It all starts with a group of dedicated, committed individuals willing to share their talents, expertise and time. Our list is long and our needs are great. Classes begin on June 10^th and will end the first week of August. We still have openings for those who’d like to test educational ideas or implement specialized instruction. You can make one presentation, teach one class or have several classes throughout the summer.

We also need entrepreneurs and more established businesses that will allow us to bring our youth to their enterprises to hear their stories and see success up close and personal. We still have the challenge of arranging transportation for youth to workplaces, neighborhood gardens and other off-campus activities. A bus is desirable but we may also need a group of drivers on hand during the summer.

If you contact me, I will send you our curriculum criteria and areas of need. Again, vision and dedication overrules diplomas and degrees.  We believe that everyone has something of value to offer the project and its youth.

Contact ph: 314-341-4071 / Email: sylvesterbj@gmail.com
DONATE (CLICK HERE)

Come out Sunday and meet the man Oprah calls and “inspiration to us all. (CLICK HERE)”

Sylvester Brown, project coordinator, May 13, 2013 radio interview with Lizz Brown on WGNU 920AM (CLICK HERE)

The Sweet Potato Project: a Sound Strategy to “Stop the Killing”

The Sweet Potato Project (CLICK HERE to VIEW VIDEO)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPP WISH LIST

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

In the summer of 2012, the North Area Community Development Corporation in partnership with When We Dream Together, Inc., introduced the Sweet Potato Project, a summer pilot program aimed at teaching at-risk youth “do-for-self” entrepreneurial skills they can use today, in their own neighborhoods. We capped off the year with the production of Sweet Potato cookies that the youth are selling to supportive groups and individuals today.

This year, 2013, we need your help to launch an expanded program with more kids based on the production of food-based products. Our goal is to create a template here in St. Louis that can revitalize communities and save young lives. We are once again turning to our community of gracious supporters for this grassroots effort. Of course we need funding but we’re also looking for business partnerships, presenters, volunteers and help with other program-related activities. Please take a look at our “Wish List” below and join us.

2013 Sweet Potato Project Wish List:

* Doonations & Sponsorships (for program and staffing needs)

* Partnerships with banks, local businesses, food manufacturers and distributors (to make presentations, allow business visits, contribute supplies, help with fund-raising)

* Partnership with local baker (production of sweet potato cookies)

* Transporation (van) to take youth to planting site and local business visits

* Consumer Support (a reliable source to purchase product(s) ceated by youth)

To Donate to the 2013 Sweet Potato Project CLICK HERE

2012 Supporters:

I want you to take a moment to ponder the sentence above.  Think about the 15 youth we’ve empowered with the knowledge that they can generate money from a product created from produce grown in a low-income neighborhood. These kids are like the thousands who wake up and are exposed to negative images and messages every day, all day. Radio and TV news, billboards, storefronts, peer pressure, media and music that condone illegal and irresponsible behavior are all factors that keep so many “at-risk” youth on the predictable paths to unemployment, poverty and prison.

We are not naïve enough to assume that the Sweet Potato Project has rescued our kids from these negative economic or societal factors. But with your help-as donors, volunteers, teachers and consumers-we have planted a seed. Today, it’s cookies; this summer it can be other food-based products; tomorrow it can be large scale urban farming, packaging, canning and distribution that will not only generate income for youth but can employ and empower other “at-risk” populations.

Reine Bayoc, co-owner of SweetArts developed Sweet Potato Pancake mix recipe. (Photo courtesy of the RFT)

Although we were under-funded, we were committed to launching the program. As many of you know, we faced many, many challenges. But, again, thanks to you, our kids received a bi-weekly stipend and were able to “earn while they learned” to be self-sufficient entrepreneurs in their own neighborhoods. I along with the North Area Community Development Corporation’s (NACDC) board are committed to raising more funds, restructuring and launching an expanded, new and improved Sweet Potato Project this summer. For this, we need and welcome your support.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE SWEET POTATO PROJECT
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR SWEET POTATO COOKIES
For special delivery email: sylvesterbj@gmail.com

Some of the sweet potato cookies. Sales will support the Sweet Potato Project, a program developed to teach “at-risk” kids entrepreneurial skills they can put to use in their own neighborhoods.

 Many thanks to Reine Bayoc, our volunteers and donors for whom it would have been impossible to develop a product out of the produce grown by youth with the Sweet Potato Project. Ms. Bayoc, who created a sweet potato pancake mix came to our aid once again with a delicious cookie recipe in time for the holidays.

A special “thank you” to Rev. Rodney Francis, executive director of the Youth & Family center for allowing us to use the facilities to bake and package the cookies.

Preparing the cookies for sale would not have been possible if not for the time and effort of our generous volunteers including the “Wonder Women” from the Spirit of the Lord Family Church.

The youth are busy updating the website they helped create during the summer phase of our program. In a couple of days, you will be able to place orders cookies and holiday trays online. You can contact us now (314-341-4071) for individual and group orders. We are planning another community “bake day” next week to make more cookies for anticipated sales.

Volunteers and Sweet Potato project youth receive instructions from Reine Bayoc, creator of the sweet potato cookie recipe.

Preparing the cookies for sale would not have been possible if not for the time and effort of our generous volunteers including the “Wonder Women” from the Spirit of the Lord Family Church.The youth are busy updating the website they helped create during the summer phase of our program. In a couple of days, you will be able to place orders for cookies and holiday trays online. You can contact us now (314-341-4071) for individual and group orders. Cookies are priced at $6 for a package of four homemade cookies and $8 for a package of six.   Within the next two weeks youth will receive additional training to boost their individual and group selling skills. Although proceeds from sales go toward program development, the student’s encouraging entrepreneurial skills are encouraged by the percentage they receive from their individual sales.

Bayoc and volunteers prepare cookies

Sweet Potato Project Youth pasting labels and preparing cookie packages

A special “thank you” to Roderick Woodruff for designing the Sweet Potato Cookie logo, Benjamin Gandhi-Shepard for helping the youth develop their website and all our donors, volunteer instructors and generous supporters.

Saturday, Dec. 8th: Volunteers needed to help bake and package sweet potato cookies for the holidays

This summer, the North Area Community Development Corporation (NACDC), working with When We Dream Together, Inc., introduced the Sweet Potato Project. The goal of the program is to teach “at risk” youth entrepreneurial skills and show them that they have viable, legal and constructive ways to generate income in their own neighborhoods. To that end, we had 15 youth plant sweet potatoes with an aim to turn the produce into a product that they would sell to family members, churches, civic organizations and other supportive individuals. The youth were paid a bi-weekly stipend and were provided lessons on leadership, team-building, marketing, branding, product development and were shown how to design their own website. They came up with several sweet potato-based products. The one we felt was most marketable was a sweet potato-based pancake mix. Reine Bayoc, who co-owns SweetArt bakeshop and art studio graciously created a sweet potato pancake recipe but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to secure a major manufacturer to create and produce the mix for us in time for holiday sales.

Reine Bayoc, co-owner of SweetArts developed Sweet Potato Pancake mix recipe. (Photo courtesy of the RFT)

Bayoc has once again came to our rescue with a delicious sweet potato cookie recipe. This Saturday, Dec. 8th, Bayoc will work with our youth to bake the cookies. NACDC will help the youth sell their creation up until the Christmas holidays. Like a real company, our youngsters will be paid for their work and receive a percentage of what they sell.

We would not have had the success we did this summer without a cadre of caring and engaged instructors, mentors and donators. The Sweet Potato Project has been a grassroots effort from the start and will continue to be as wrap up the year and prepare to expand the program in 2013. This week, however, we’re issuing a call-out for help with the baking and packaging of holiday cookies. We need about 30 individuals to help in the kitchen and in preparing the packages of cookies. Immediately, like within the next few days, we can use those with expertise in product sales, pricing, order forms and online sales.

NACDC’s staffers and supporters will meet for this Saturday, starting at 10am at the Youth and Family Center at 818 Cass Avenue / St. Louis, MO 63106. (CLICK HERE FOR MAP) Please email me to confirm your participation and/or for more details.

Imagine the sense of empowerment our youth will have as they promote and sell a product they created. The potential and possibilities of this effort is tremendous. Many of you can take pride in the fact that you helped create a program that offers viable opportunities for kids growing up in areas were hope and opportunity are rarities. Let’s keep it up. Join us this Saturday. — Sincerely, Sylvester Brown, Jr.

For more details or to volunteer send an email to sylvesterbj@gmail.com

We have Sweet Potatoes! Now what?

What’s next?
What makes the Sweet Potato Project unique is the fact that it aims to show “at-risk” kids in low-income communities that they have opportunities to generate money in their own neighborhoods without succumbing to the lure of the illegal drug trade. We made a promise to the youth that we would turn the produce they planted into a product they can sell. They have chosen a pancake mix made out of sweet potatoes that they can sell to churches, civic groups, businesses and other supportive individuals.

This is where you come in. Surely there are those out there with access to major  manufacturers or food producers who can help us process and package this product. Imagine the impact we will have on the youth in our program and their parents and neighbors to have an actual product grown and distributed from low-income communities. As we’ve often said, this pilot program is a seed, a seed that, with your involvement, can grow into a real economic boon for communities in dire need of self-sustaining jobs and small businesses.

NACDC’s board plans to start classes once per week where the youth will be trained to sell their products. It is our sincere desire to have their product ready for distribution during the holidays and on through February 2013.

With your help, we can not only inspire our youth, we can empower long-neglected communities.

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FUNDRAISER: COMMUNITY CAR WASH

FUNDRAISER: COMMUNITY CAR WASH

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Take a Listen: The Sweet Potato Project Theme song written, recorded and produced by the Sweet Potato Project Youth:

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FINAL WEEK of SUMMER SESSION AUG. 6th-10th

An all-hands-on-deck call out!
This is the final week of the Sweet Potato Project’s summer session and we want to end it with a bang. With professional help, the youth will build and launch their own website. They will also create a SPP jingle and engage in an exciting and fun competition based on the popular TV show “The Apprentice.”

Sweet Potato Project Website

Sweet Potato Project Jingle

The Urban Apprentice Competition

End of session car wash (tba)

The program will continue after school starts with weekend sessions for the 2012 Class. The major focus will be on developing the product they have created. While we’re working with partners to produce the product in quantities, we will continue training the youth to make individual, group and Internet sales.

However, we have much work to do in the next few days and we need your help. Below are the specific donations of items, personal time and services needed. Please join us as we make the final week one that will challenge and inspire these young people to live up to their potential and become change agents in their own communities.

MONDAY & TUESDAY:

Donated items needed for Urban Apprentice Competition

No youth will hear “you’re fired” but like the popular TV show-youth teams will compete to sell donated items within four hours on Thursday, August 9th. We’re asking individuals to donate a purchased item(s) that the youth can sell. They can range from candy to other packaged goods. Donations will be equally distributed among the teams who will compete for the “Urban Apprentice” title.
Items can be dropped off with SPP representatives at the Julia Davis Library at 4415 Natural Bridge Avenue at Newstead from 9am to 12pm. Please call 314-602-5212 or email whenwedreamtogether@gmail.com if you need items picked up.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY:

Drivers are needed to take youth to South County Mall from 9am-11am to record their SPP jingle. We will also need drivers on Thursday to accompany youth teams as they sell their products for the Urban Apprentice competition.

SATURDAY 9am-Noon: Sweet Potato Project Community Car wash

Come out and meet the SPP youth during the community car wash fund-raiser. Location to be announced.

Email whenwedreamtogether@gmail.com for personal E-vite

A video/photo essay of the 8-week summer program

WEEK SIX: July 23th-July 26th

Karen Davis, horticulturist with Lincoln University-St. Louis Urban Impact Center, talks with SPP youth about their produce and expected harvest

Instructor, Mimsy Hebron, has students create a sweet potato project quilt that they will display around town

Jamaican-born motivational speaker, Richard Cross, explains how his young life of poverty prepared him for great success

Richard Cross speaks on success despite of overwhelming odds

Motivational speaker, Raqib Muhammad, conducts an intense session where youth share their personal challenges

Benjamin Ghandi-Shepard helps SPP youth design their website

WEEK FIVE: July 16th-July 19th

SPP youth at Local Harvest Cafe & catering, tasting sweet potato recipes

Harvest Cafe & Catering owners, Maddie and Chef Clara, give the youth advice on running a restaurant

Nicole Adewale of ABNA Engineering and member of Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority talks about leadership & careers

Chuck Alphin, trainer/consultant in conflict management and nonviolence

WEEK FOUR: July 9th-July 12th

Ben Gandhi-Shepard introduces the students to professional photography

Motivational speaker, Raqib Muhammad, shares slides in his discussion on world poverty and the power of change

Radio executive, Baqi Cherry, shares marketing and advertising information

LaWanda Jones and Nicole Adewale of ABNA Engineering lecture on careers and leadership skills

WEEK THREE: July 2nd-July 6th

Some of the SPP youth were very shy and hesitant to speak publicly. One of first exercises was a dramatic reading from a library book of their choice. The following week, the students interviewed one another and made presentation.

Marquita delivers her report on Derron

Keith listens as Darryeon tells his story

Darryeon confesses that one of the reasons he joined the program was to overcome his shyness

WEEK TWO: June 25th-June 28th

WEEK ONE: June 18th-June 21

“Hood Walk” photo by Sweet Potato Project student, Ella Stewart

URGENT NEED:

To date, the Sweet Potato project has been funded by the donations of concerned and committed individuals. We will receive some nonprofit funding in coming months but the program is in need of immediate operational funds. The young people are active, engaged and showing up on time ready to learn while they earn. This community-based effort is in need of community embrace. Please CLICK HERE and make a donation TODAY.

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“My” Sweet Potato Kids

by Sylvester Brown, Jr.

“Good morning, Mr. Brown.”

Every day, sizzling hot or not, 15 young people wait for me outside the Julie Davis Branch Library. Some come from the neighborhood or other parts of the city or county. A few have walked, others ride the bus or their parents have dropped them off. A few straggle in late.

These are the youth of the Sweet Potato Project, a summer program I’ve launched with the North Area Community Development Corporation. Our goal is to teach kids entrepreneurial skills they can use today in their own neighborhoods. We’ve planted sweet potatoes on a vacant lot in North St. Louis. The kids receive a bi-weekly stipend with the idea that they will create their own sweet potato-based product; learn marketing, branding, website design, teamwork and other necessary skills so they can sell their product to churches, secular groups and supportive consumers.

My Sweet Potato kids are a challenging bunch. They all have unhealthy addictions to their cell phones and act as if you’ve insulted their mothers when told to turn them off. Some have that rock-headed, talk-back, eye-rolling attitude, with healthy doses of cocky belligerence. Scars of fatherless homes, poverty and hard living are etched on a few young faces and speak to their sometimes disruptive behavior. Yet, behind the façade of street-smart bravado, I’ve scoped something out about these kids. They are brilliant.

The thought that these young people and so many like them will become statistics of crime, teen-pregnancy and incarceration stabs at my heart. How many are dismissed, demeaned or denied simply because we didn’t take the time to look beyond unsettling veneers? How many could be turned around, saved and inspired to greatness with a little concentrated attention?

Let me tell you about my Sweet Potato kids:
CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE

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Aug 17, 2012 interview with City Corner’s host Melanie Adams broadcast on SAINTLOUISTV

The Northsider / July 21, 2012

What happens to a child who grows up in a neighborhood where selling drugs is considered the only viable option to generate income?

Can children see themselves as entrepreneurs when there are very few successful examples in their neighborhoods?

Can young people in neighborhoods defined daily as “bad”, “violent” or “deadly” take pride in themselves or their communities?

Two area agencies, When We Dream Together, Inc., and the North Area Community Development Corporation, set out to answer those questions. In collaboration with several engaged individuals, the agencies launched the Sweet Potato Project in the 21st Ward.

“This eight-week pilot program is designed to teach a group of high school-aged teens that there are indeed opportunities within their reach,” said project director, Sylvester Brown, Jr. “The kids are paid a stipend during the summer to plant and harvest sweet potatoes. They will create a product and learn how to market and distribute what they’ve created. We’ve been blessed with a few volunteer instructors who are committed to nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurism within these kids.”

The idea, Brown said, is to show youth that there are viable (and legal) ways to make money within their communities.

READ MORE CLICK HERE

The River Front Times Writes; “The Sweet Potato Project Introduces at-risk Youth to Growing’ Spuds”:
By Rease KirchnerThu., Jul. 26 2012

This month, the North Area Community Development Corporation launched the Sweet Potato Project for at-risk youth in north St. Louis County. Gut Check spoke with founder Sylvester Brown, the former Post-Dispatch columnist, about the project and, of course, where all those tasty sweet potatoes will end up.

The Sweet Potato Project is an entrepreneurial effort that aims to provide at-risk youth with the opportunity to learn more about small-business sales and marketing. The set-up is much like a paid internship for kids ages fifteen to eighteen. The teens are working together this summer to plant and cultivate sweet-potato crops. In the fall, they will work in teams to develop product ideas for the sweet potatoes: sweet potato fries? sweet potato chips? sweet potato pies?

READ MORE CLICK HERE

The Sweet Potatoe Project

The Sweet Potato Project by Kim Hudson/KTVI Fox 2

Fox 2 on the Sweet Potato Project & Community Planting Day

The Sweet Potato Project / KTVI news report by Kim Hudson

NORTH ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – The Sweet Potato Project kicked off Saturday morning in north St. Louis, using an urban garden to give at-risk kids the keys to entrepreneurship.

A small, dirt root held the secrets to financial empowerment for at-risk kids. Young men in middle and high school planted sweet potatoes at the 4500 block of Athlone. In the heart of North City, it was the ultimate urban garden.

“We will spend the next 8 weeks teaching them how to turn the produce into a product,” explained Sylvester Brown, director of The Sweet Potato Project.

By summer’s end the project would graduate its first class of entrepreneurs.

“These kids will learn how to market it, how to brand it, how to create a website for it, how to go out and sell it to churches, how to see it to groups,” Brown explained.

Photo by Kim Hudson/KTVI

Photo by Kim Hudson/KTVI Fox 2

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO VIEW KTVI VIDEO & COMPLETE STORY

VOLUNTEERS AND YOUTH TO PLANT SWEET POTATOES IN 21ST WARD

Kick-off for the Sweet Potato Project, a summer program to teach at-risk
youth “do-for-self” entrepreneurial skills

ST. LOUIS-This Saturday, June 02, 2012 from 9am to 1pm, volunteers and at-risk youth hoping to land a spot in a new, innovative summer program, The Sweet Potato Project, will plant sweet potatoes on a vacant lot in the 4500 block of Athlone Avenue in the 21st Ward.

The program sponsored by the North Area Community Development Corporation is designed to show inner-city youth that there are “do-for-self” opportunities to generate money within their own neighborhoods without turning to the deadly drug trade that dominates so many low-income areas. During the 8-week program, students will earn a minimum-wage salary to harvest sweet potatoes, develop a sweet potato product and learn about packaging, website design, marketing, production and the distribution of the product they’ve created.

Classes for the pilot program will be held in the public gathering sections of Julia Davis Library (4415 Natural Bridge Ave). A host of educators, entrepreneurs and professionals in the related fields of horticulture, small business, technology, banking, marketing, food production & manufacturing and more have volunteered to work with students. Sweet Potato Project kids will visit various businesses, worksites and other places for exposure and to learn “real-world” entrepreneurial skills.

“This is a truly a grassroots endeavor in every sense of the word,” said Shirley Emerson, president of the North Area Community Development Corporation (NACDC). “We put the word out about the project a few months ago and the response from volunteer has been amazing and overwhelming.”

Karen Davis, regional horticulture specialist with the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Urban Impact Center of St. Louis is one of those supporters. Antonio French, Alderman of the 21st Ward is another. French has donated a vacant lot he owns and Davis will oversee “Community Plant Day,” when volunteers plant sweet potatoes on the lot. Numerous agencies and individuals who work with at-risk youth have been asked to bring potential students to work at least one hour during Community Plant Day. The youth will be interviewed and given information to share with their parents or guardians. Only 10-15 will be selected to participate in this year’s summer pilot project.

NACDC, a 501 (c-3) tax exempt organization, which has a long history in youth-related programs and agriculture-based efforts has partnered with When We Dream Together, Inc. (WWDT), a local nonprofit dedicated to urban revitalization, to develop and administer the Sweet Potato Project. Classes are scheduled to begin on Monday, June 18th.

Click map for MapQuest directions
More information about the Sweet Potato Project, the upcoming “Community Plant Day” and directions to the planting site can be found on this website

“Community Plant Day” to plant sweet potatoes in the 21st Ward

The Sweet Potato Project program will kick off next month with classes held at Julia Davis Library at 4415 Natural Bridge Avenue in North St. Louis. The program has received tremendous support from Aldermen Antonio French and other supporters in the 21st Ward, such Floyd G. Graves. Sr. Regional Branch Manager at Julia Davis. French has allowed NACDC to plant sweet potato slips on a vacant lot in the 4500 block of Athlone Ave.

We are inviting residents, potential students for the program and anyone who wants to support this worthwhile project to join NACDC on Saturday, June 2nd from 9-to-noon as we plant our first sweet potato crop. Karen Davis, Regional Horticulture Specialist with the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Urban Impact Center of St. Louis is overseeing the planting process. We will be planting the slips in four beds (18″ deep and 4′ wide and 8′ foot long).

Everyone is welcome.  Just send an email to whenwedreamtogether@gmail.com letting us know you plan to attend or call 314-351-7222 for a verbal confirmation.

Sweet potatoes are an excellent vegetable crop that is high in fiber and vitamins A and C, low in fat and is considered a very nutritious vegetable. While crops are growing, students involved in the pilot program will work with a cadre of professional volunteers who will help them develop a sweet potato-based product(s), create the recipe(s), learn about branding, marketing, website design, distribution and other entrepreneurial skills. Our goal is to have them ready by Fall to make presentations and take orders for their product from church and civic groups, online and through other sales techniques.

Imagine the symbolic and real-life benefits of creating a product from communities where there are very few examples of business success. We’re hoping this project in the 21st Ward serves as a seed that will grow to serve more students and eventually become the template for the creation of self-sustainable jobs and businesses in disadvantaged areas.

Today, however, we are starting with a vacant lot, classes at the library and a host of benevolent, engaged individuals and supporters.

We are still seeking sponsorship and individual donations. Please join us in the truly grassroots effort that has the potential to impact the lives of young people and communities in need of innovative and progressive change.

WHAT: Community Plant Day, Saturday, June 02, 2012 / 9am-12pm

Click map for MapQuest directions 

TO SIGN UP FOR “COMMUNITY PLANT DAY” send an email to whenwedreamtogether@gmail.com

TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTABLE DONATION TO THE SWEET POTATO PROJECT CLICK HERE

On Saturday, June 2nd

Classes for the Sweet Potato Project to be held at Julia Davis Library

The Sweet Potato Project pilot program will kick off next month with classes held at Julia Davis Library at 4415 Natural Bridge Avenue in North St. Louis.

NACDC officials accepted the Library’s gracious offer to host classes in its public spaces for several reasons. The library’s location in the 21st Ward is easily assessable to students. The vacant property where the sweet potatoes will be planted has been provided by the ward’s alderman, Antonio French. It is in the same general location of the library. Additionally, Julia Davis staff members will be on hand with a wide variety of resources the students will need including computer and Internet training and access to relevant educational material.  The Sweet Potato Project has reached out to a professional educational consulting group and to coordinate and conduct classes.  NACDC has also extended invitations to area educators, counselors, volunteers, entrepreneurs and representatives of lending institutions, marketing companies and food manufacturing and distribution companies to partner with the project to educate youth on the essentials of food growth, product development, production, marketing and distribution. The library’s presentation room will serve as an excellent venue for lectures, demonstrations, movies and other related educational activities.

NACDC would like to thank Julia Davis Regional Branch Manager, Floyd G. Graves. Sr. for reaching out and the staff at Julia Davis Library for their contributions to the Sweet Potato Project.

“This effort has been a true grassroots endeavor in every sense of the word,” said Sylvester Brown, Jr., project director for the Sweet potato pilot program. “We still have a way to go and much money to raise but we’re gratified by the outreach and support we have received from Ald. French, Floyd Graves and so many others who are making this project a reality and a great opportunity for our youth.”

To make a donation to the Sweet Potato Project CLICK HERE

The Sweet Potato Project: An effort by “Our Own Hands”

“Cast down your bucket where you are…cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions.” -Booker T. Washington – 1895

Commentary by Sylvester Brown, Jr.

May 10, 2012-Next month, the North Area Community Development Corporation (NACDC), When We Dream Together, Inc (WWDT), and a host of community partners will officially launch a nine-week summer program for North St. Louis “at-risk” youth called “The Sweet Potato Project. Our ambitious but basic mission is to empower youth in disadvantaged communities by paying them a minimum wage salary to grow sweet potatoes, turn the yield into a product (cookies, pies, muffins, etc.) and then teach them how to create the brand, market and distribute the product they’ve created.

At this point, our resources are limited but potential for inner-city transformation is great. Our goal is to foster a do-for-self mentality for a challenged generation of urban youth. We want to empower them with the knowledge that they don’t have to become involved in the deadly illegal drug trade to make money. We want them to understand there are viable opportunities right outside their doors. Today, we start with youth but this seed could easily grow to empower adults and generate economic activity in long-neglected, poor communities throughout our region.

In a way, this effort is rooted in the message Booker T. Washington shared in 1895 when he urged former slaves to become self-sufficient through “productions of our hands.” The fact is, in this still ailing economy, we cannot expect the police alone to stem disproportionate crime and murder rates in our region or wait for the government to create programs aimed at teaching at-risk youth how to become self-sufficient entrepreneurs.

This is a community responsibility and we’re issuing an all-hands-on-deck appeal to pull this endeavor off this summer. NACDC has applied for several grants and the outlook is promising. However, if awarded, nonprofit funding for the pilot program will most likely be granted in the fall or later. The majority of those funds will probably be applied to packaging and production of the student’s products and next year’s expanded programming.

Therefore, we’re turning to the community to raise enough funds to launch this summer’s pilot program so we can pay 10-to-15 teen participants over the slated nine-week period.

Consider this missive a community call-out. Of course, we need donations but we’re also looking for volunteer teachers, counselors and others willing to teach a related course for a few days. We need adults who can help us plant and harvest sweet potatoes; transport youth to area businesses and out-of-class activities and serve as role models and mentors. We want parishioners of churches and members of civic organizations involved and committed to purchasing bulk orders of the products the kids produce. In brief, we welcome anyone who wants to play a role in this worthwhile endeavor.

We’re also looking for those who head banks and lending institutions, grocery chains, food manufacturing and production companies, culinary institutes and area universities. We need you as sponsors and as partners. We’re hoping representatives will host money management or manufacturing classes, meet with the kids and explain what they do and how they do it.
In his Atlanta Compromise Speech, Booker T. Washington also said “…cast down your bucket where you are.” He advised people to make change with what they had at hand. This is the mantra of the Sweet Potato Project – a grassroots effort by every definition.

We’ve “cast down our buckets” and have a solid foundation of supporters. Program advisors include a horticulture specialist with Lincoln University’s Cooperative Extension program, a renowned professor from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and a Washington University MA, MBA business professional. Alderman Antonio French of the 21st ward has offered NACDC a vacant lot in the 4500 block of Athlone Avenue where we’ll soon plant the sweet potatoes. The president of the Educational Equity group is on board to help coordinate classes and programming and we’re talking with the director of the Julia Davis Library about holding classes there. New York Times best-selling author and the Food Network’s celebrity chef, Jeff Henderson-who learned of the project while visiting St. Louis last month-has also offered to serve as keynote speaker at an upcoming fund-raising event.

We are seeking support from everybody but it’s important to us that our kids also be surrounded by volunteers, mentors, educators, professionals and neighbors who look like them and help them develop and distribute a product that brings a sense of pride and ownership back to their neighborhoods.

Margaret Mead, the cultural anthropologist once said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” We have that small group of dedicated citizens but we need more. Please join us. Share this commentary with anyone you think may be interested in playing a role in this community effort. NACDC is a 501 (c3) tax exempt agency. You can go to its website and make a donation online. If possible, do it today, funds are needed and we welcome any amount.

Each year, we ask at-risk teens to turn from drugs, put down their guns and stay in school without providing the resources, alternatives and loving mentorship that helps make these choices viable. This year, we can offer youth opportunities to earn while they learn valuable life-long lessons. If the pilot program is successful, we can reach many more and even expand the concept so ex-offenders and unemployed adults in disadvantaged communities can be empowered through this community-based economic development model.

The challenge is great, but I wholeheartedly believe we can do this. For now, let us cast down our buckets where we are. Together, a small group of committed citizens can indeed do our part to “can change the world.”

Sincerely,
Sylvester Brown, Jr.
Project Manager; The Sweet Potato Project

NACDC partners to launch The Sweet Potato Project in the 21st Ward

April 25, 2012
ST.LOUIS-This summer, the North Area Community Development Corporation(NACDC), a 501(c-3) agency in partnership with When We Dream Together, Inc (WWDT). and other engaged individuals and agencies will launch the Sweet Potato Project in North St. Louis.

This pilot program is designed to teach a group of high school-aged children that there are indeed opportunities within their reach.  Young people will be paid a minimum wage salary during the summer to plant and harvest sweet potatoes, create a product and learn how to market and distribute what they’ve created. We will nurture the spirit of entrepreneurism in kids who will go out and sell their product(s) and also receive commissions later in the school year. The idea is to show them that there are viable (and legal) means within their communities in which to make money.

A network that includes horticulturists, educational professionals, advisors and business people have volunteered their services to implement the program. Antonio French, the Alderman of the 21^st Ward has offered space in his ward to hold classes and grow the produce. We are excited to partner with French who has initiated several efforts to revitalize an area that has been besieged with crime, poverty and other long-term socio-economic problems. Additionally, we take great pride in working in a neighborhood in desperate need of innovative ideas aimed at fostering community pride and economic independence.

Sweet Potato Project administrators will work to build a core group of consumers derived from churches, secular groups, corporations and people within disadvantaged communities who will commit to purchasing the products. We envision a marketing program, somewhat like the Girl Scout Cookies, Inc., where consumers instinctively understand that their purchases serve a holistic cause.

With this project, we hope to a plant a seed of possibilities that can grow to serve many more youth and eventually adult populations in disadvantaged areas. Imagine the positive economic and psychological impact of a large-scale food distribution system in communities where small business opportunities and hope are rare commodities.

The forecast for disadvantaged youth in our region is dire. In this post-recession economy, youth unemployment is still disproportionately high, especially in low-income areas. As Washington struggles to reduce the nation’s deficit, safety nets for the poor have been significantly reduced or eliminated. This is the time of year when criminal activity and death rates among young people start to rise. We have little choice but create community-based efforts that stem these negatives in our region.

We extend an invitation to all caring individuals and companies in our region to bring their passions, skills and resources to a worthwhile community-based endeavor that will employ and empower young people today. An all-hands-on-deck approach is imperative if we are to convince young people that they have not been abandoned and help is at the ready.

There are roles for everyone in this project. We need individuals and professionals in the areas of horticulture, food processing, recipe development, packaging and marketing. We’re looking for people who’ll volunteer a week or more during the summer for consulting, etiquette training, youth development, money management classes and transportation. We’d want these youth to go on excursions to local established businesses such as Sweetie Pie’s, World Wide Technology, Andy’s Seasoning and other entities so they can see people who look like them operating successful business enterprises.

Of course, fund-raising is crucial and we are actively engaged in the process of gaining sponsors and donors. Nationally known TV personality and New York Times best-selling author Chef Jeff Henderson learned about the program during a visit to St. Louis in April and has committed to serve as keynote speaker for a fund-raising event this summer (more info to come).

Time is of the essence but we are in steady motion on all fronts. We are confident that everything will be in place to start the pilot project this summer. We have no unrealistic expectations. Massive change will not happen overnight. Crime and the socio-economic factors that fuel it will likely increase this summer. However, we can move in a new direction. Today we can start reclaiming a few of our youth and embed an empowering message of hope and change in long-neglected communities.

We invite you to join NACDC and its partners as we launch the Sweet Potato Project in North St. Louis this summer. This is an invitation to empower children and neighborhoods. It’s a community call-out to plant a powerful seed.