Growing Hope Cayuga
Growing Hope Cayuga seeks to foster empathy, compassion and shared purpose to accelerate an end to hunger and malnutrition around the world through positive youth development and collective action.
2026 Youth Growing Projects
Growing Hope Cayuga invests in youth-led projects in Auburn, Cato and Scipio that address hunger and malnutrition.
The BTW Community Garden will provide youth with early hands-on learning experiences to help foster lasting healthy eating habits and self-sufficiency. The project engages children in learning how to grow their own food and empowers them to apply these skills at home. Children will learn cultivation, preservation, and basic food preparation skills they can apply across households and generations.
The Parlor Pals 4-H Club will partner with Green Hill Dairy in Scipio Center to create a Garden Space for members to learn about horticulture, animal husbandry and nutrition while giving back to the community. Within the garden space, youth will grow produce and raise chickens. 50-75% of the crop will be donated to local food pantries to support healthy eating and living in Cayuga County.
Cato-Meridian FFA’s Indoor School Garden Project will engage the 8th grade Agriculture class in feeding their school community by growing lettuce and cooking greens for the cafeteria. Students will learn how to propagate and successfully grow their own food. Youth education will cover plant varieties, growing conditions, plant needs, and connections across the food system from producer (the students) to consumer (school population).
The Westside Community Growing Project activates an underutilized section of the Michael Lepak Memorial Park in Auburn to create a vibrant learning and growing space for youth that builds skills, fosters leadership, and strengthens community connections. Auburnian Anna Ritter will oversee implementation of this youth farm project, a community-driven initiative designed to engage local youth in sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and food production through expansion of the garden. This project increases local access to fresh food, strengthens the local food system, creates pathways to green jobs, strengthens community networks and cultivates food justice awareness.
Auburn Public Theater’s Summer Youth Culinary Arts Camp & Meal Support project helps youth build real-world culinary skills through education, hands-on learning and integration of farm-to-table meal sourcing and preparation by youth from youth and for youth. This project supports young workers at Cafe 108 in preparing meals for scholarship campers attending APT’s four summer programs and meals for campers attending Annie at the Cortland Repertory Theatre. APT’s in-camp meal support ensures that no child attending any summer program goes without food, directly combating summer hunger in a low-income community.