La Bajada Urban Youth Farm Grows Good In West Dallas

POSTED 5:39 PM, MAY 21, 2017, BY TIM ROBERTS

DALLAS — Nothing like a Sunday afternoon brunch, with a great purpose. The La Bajada Urban Youth Farm hosted its first ever “Farm to Community Brunch” with local chefs providing the meal and all the proceeds going to help La Bajada, a community garden in West Dallas.

“These youth interns get paid to come work on this farm and grow food and then we share the food with the community,” said Elizabeth Dry, the executive director of Promise of Peace Gardens who works with the La Bajada Urban Youth Farm.

Yeah, it gives them a hands on, outdoors education they wouldn’t otherwise get.

“Coming here I’m not really used to being outdoors with the nature so learning how to plant and grow different seeds and getting my hands dirty was new to me,” said Grace Zamora, one of the students. “So it was difficult but I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”

And for these kids there’s an even bigger purpose than learning how to farm and making a little extra cash.

“I see all of us as great leaders and it’s up to us to change how people see West Dallas,” another student, Jave Garcia, said. “It isn’t a place of crime, it isn’t a place of violence, it’s a place where normal people live and have great dreams and they try to aspire to their dreams and make them come true.”

Just goes to show there’s a lot more growing in this garden in the middle of the city than just plants.