Quinzell “Q”, age 21: After attending technical institute for landscaping, a mentor of Q’s recommended he come work for the UTC. He was surprised (as many of us are) to see such a big growing space in the middle of the city and began working with UTC full time in March. Q works at the farm every day and most recently oversaw the building of our new shed. He sees many benefits in kids from surrounding communities coming to work at UTC as they could “be doing much worse things with their time, especially in the summer with all the free time.” Q also mentioned he has learned a lot about new different types of vegetables and has even begun to try eating them too!

 Taron, age 21: Taron joined the UTC team in June and will be working with us through the end of the summer when he will start City Year. He too works on the farm every day. Since working withUTC Taron began to realize the lack of quality produce in the grocery stores and says that to even get to those grocery stores is difficult for many community members as they have to pay for public transportation and travel long distances. Taron says the farm is right in the community and is a welcoming place for everyone, always bringing many different types of people together that wouldn’t necessarily cross paths otherwise.