Millennials donate their time on middle school urban farm wrapping up MCon2017

There was work to be done, on the farm Saturday morning in Palmetto.

While the urban farm is normally tended to by adolescents, a group of millennials got their chance to get their hands in the dirt. And there was plenty to do from cleaning chicken coops, pig pens and rabbit hutches to what every garden needs: weeding.

Dozens of millennials took some hours out of their Saturdays to help with the upkeep and maintenance of the urban farm at Lincoln Middle School in Palmetto as part of the the MCon2017 Millennial Conference.

“It’s quite large, and so the middle schoolers during their time here during the school day don’t necessarily have the time to complete all the projects and do all the upkeep,” said Cassandra Decker, United Way of Manatee Community Engagement Coordinator.

Once a month however, volunteers from the United Way of Manatee County donate some of their time at the farm. Sometimes the United Way encourages other groups to donate their time at the urban farm, including for the Millennial Conference’s Day of Service.

Millennials of different ages, including students from the State College of Florida, the Lakewood Ranch High School National Honor Society and M3, or Manatee Millennial Movement, which is Manatee County Government’s team of Millennial employees, partook in the day of service on Saturday morning.

“It’s really such a great experience, especially because you know you are directly helping the kids and helping the community,” Lakewood Ranch High senior Colby Lindblad said.

Lindblad, Decker and several other volunteers were tasked with cleaning the rabbit hutches.

“The best part was after we cleaned their cages and set them back up,” Lindblad said. “We got to brush them, pet them and groom them. It’s quite a process; some of them wanted to run away.”

For Kimberley Lough, the Lincoln Middle Agriscience Instructor and Future Farmers of America Advisor, the day was a complete success. Volunteers were able to complete a lengthy list of tasks the dedicated teacher needed completed on the farm.

Lough students work throughout the year raising the chickens, roosters, turkeys and rabbits that live on the farm. Students also grow their own plants in garden boxes and later in raised beds, taking leafy greens, strawberries, peanuts and more home to eat as a result of their hard work. They are also learning to grow and maintain ornamental gardens.

In addition to tending to the chicken coops, pig pens and rabbit hutches, millennials also helped the newest addition to the farm get settled: Boomer, a steer that was donated to the program by Genesis Health Services. While students are not normally at the farm on the third Saturday of the month when volunteers donate their time, a handful including Madison Boasko, 14, came to learn some of the basics of Boomer’s care.

Boasko, an eighth-grader, will not be a Lincoln Middle student when Boomer is entered at next year’s county fair, but she will be helping take care of Boomer until the end of the school year and teach students going into the program what she has learned previously raising an award-winning dairy cow that she showed at the Manatee County Fair, she said.

“It’s a very good experience,” Boasko said.

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Millennials donate their time on middle school urban farm wrapping up MCon2017."