These local students are learning hydroponic farming to grow and sell microgreens as a family business.

There is always something positive and rewarding going on at the Making A Difference Foundation and its Eloise’s Cooking Pot food bank, and all with a mission to better people’s lives. From its drive-through free food distribution program at the Tacoma Dome every Wednesday to its food home delivery service to offering scholarships to secure bright futures for youth, the non-profit is firmly rooted in the belief that food security combined with education is the greatest equalizer for anyone to have a good life.

Under the visionary leadership of Making A Difference Foundation founder, president and CEO Ahndrea Blue, a new program has recently launched called “Feeding Our Future.” Designed for youth ages 16-25, Feeding Our Future is dedicated to teaching young people all about indoor farming while building their knowledge, skills and confidence to run their own business. The program empowers participants with the skills to grow their own food, build sustainable futures, and make a lasting impact in their communities.

Two cohorts of students are currently engaged in the program which lasts for 20 weeks. During this time, the participants are learning how to plant, grow, care for and harvest crops through hands-on experience with indoor hydroponics to grow plants without soil. Concurrently, the program includes business coaching to help students understand how to succeed in the farming industry or any business endeavor they may have in mind for their futures.

Feeding Our Future addresses students’ immediate needs as well as they strive to help support their families in these times when food prices and other expenses present a real struggle for some. At the end of each session, students are welcome to take food home from the food bank and can be guided to other resources that help them along in life.

“Feeding our Future is about helping youth learn how to grow microgreens and other items and then to take those items to the market,” Blue said. “We’re focusing on microgreens because of their health nutrients but also, they are a pretty profitable type of item that the kids could see an immediate return on. The cycle of growing is very short. All you need is some trays, seeds, and a place to grow and you could have a crop every 10-12 days.

“It can be a gamechanger for their families and that’s what we’re really hoping. If not microgreens, maybe herbs or something else with low entry, low-cost, and high reward.”

Profits that the youth would make from their microgreens venture supports them and their families while also supporting the health of Eloise’s Cooking Pot clients and the students’ own classmates by providing this “super food” to their school lunchrooms. These are just two sources where the fresh microgreens can be sold and shared straight to the table.

Feeding Our Future participants also receive a stipend for participating in the program. This idea came about as a solution to one student’s involvement with growing cannabis and getting into trouble for it.

As Blue explained, “He wasn’t selling marijuana because he had nothing else to do. He was selling it to help his family make ends meet. In order to ask my kids not to do those things that are making ends meet, we need to be able to provide those means to them until their businesses are up and going.”

At the end of the 20 weeks, the students can receive scholarships if they want to go on to higher learning in agriculture or the Making A Difference Foundation can feed into their business and match their bank accounts.

Jolene Cook is the program coordinator. She comes from a background in elementary school education before moving on to a career in technology at Microsoft for 17 years. She is currently in the process of completing her Master of Business Administration degree at Seattle University. She also has a green thumb growing flowers, roses in particular, so her work with Feeding Our Future marries the best of all her talents.

Program manager Jolene Cook is amazed at the students’ personal growth.

There are 20 students in the first cohort and 11 in the second cohort, both simultaneously running parallel with each other. Feeding Our Future is comprised of a leadership component, a business component, and a grow lab component, combining a classroom setting with hands-on instruction. It’s more than teaching the students practical skills; it’s shaping their lives as young adults preparing to go out into the world.

“For the leadership component, we’ve been getting them familiar and comfortable with their own voice. A lot of these kids just haven’t had to speak in front of other people before,” Cook said. “In growing a business, the leadership skills help with defining who they are if they haven’t really thought about it.”

Cook said that at first, the students were reserved and didn’t really speak much, but as they’ve been interacting and going through the self-esteem and team building exercises, they are finding their voice.

“They’re excited – they’re asking more and giving more feedback. Knowing that someone believes in them and giving them some direction to make better choices has really changed these kids’ lives in a very short period of time.”

By reaching out to area schools districts – Tacoma, Bethel, Spanaway and Franklin-Pierce – students were able to discover Feeding Our Future and sign up voluntarily. The students want to be there, returning week after week as they grow academically and personally.

“We’re hoping with this program to be able to really help the family move out of poverty, to provide another viable income especially for the kids between the ages and 16 and 18 to have it become a family business and provide a sustainable income for the family as a whole,” Blue said.

“We’re pairing up this program with first-time homebuyer programs throughout Washington state to help them hopefully move from apartments to homes so they can have an area and land to grow on.”

Feeding Our Future is the youth component of Making A Difference Foundation’s BIPOC farmer hub. Work is underway now to remodel the building across the street from Eloise’s Cooking Pot on McKinley Avenue (where the “Muted Voices” mural is) into a hydroponic farm for up to 30 farmer entrepreneurs. This project is slated for completion next year and in the meantime, Making A Difference Foundation’s warehouse on Portland Avenue is being utilized as the grow site.

Cook gives Blue due credit for her gift of embracing all people and using her own resources to lift them up.

“The feedback from the kids, they love seeing Ahndrea there and they’ve requested her to come back because she brings energy to the program,” Cook said. “They say, ‘Can boss lady come back and visit us?’ because they love her support of the program. She is at the heart of changing people’s lives and making their lives better.”

Feeding Our Future is financially supported through the Pierce County Birth to 25 program and the state Department of Commerce Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention. Learn more about the program and how to apply at themadf.org/feeding-our-future.