Producing for the Future is an Oregon State University research project where youth, adult partners, and OSU researchers work together to design and plant a community garden and develop a microenterprise venture to market the produce grown. Using the CBPR process, everyone on the project collects and analyze data evaluating the project and provide training and outreach to other communities interested in similar collaborations.
This project is funded by the National Institutes of Health to explore health benefits of community-based garden programs for low-income youth and to teach gardening, cooking, marketing and research skills. The gardens are located at two local churches in Corvallis and Sweet Home, Oregon.
The goal of our research project was to compare the knowledge and attitudes of Producing for the Future participants about local food resources, gardening, eating organically, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle before their participation in the project, with attitudes and knowledge of the topic after they had been a participant. We used this data to analyze what types of changes took place among our participants pre and post experience
