A small farm just north of one of Rochester’s most challenged neighborhoods is teaching valuable lessons. The South Lawn project is a place where at-risk young people are growing much more than just a crop of vegetables.

To grow something good, it takes a green thumb — and often two dirty hands.

“I love doing this,” said Jordan Conyer, as he picked potatoes he helped grow. “It's very surreal kind of watching the whole process, to be honest.”

Every day of the week, you’ll find Conyer in the garden at Cornell Cooperative Extension’s office. What just months ago was a bare strip of land is now a full, flourishing garden.

“In the communities like mine where I grew up there, you don't see a lot of this,” said Conyer, of Rochester. “And I think that is something that needs to be changed.”

The garden, located off St. Paul Boulevard, is easy to miss. But the things they do there are valuable.

“It’s a transitional jobs program so we teach job readiness skills, communication, conflict resolution,” said Mike Kincaid, who manages the South Lawn Project. “You can be coming from any background, any past.” 

The program involves at-risk young people, ages 18 through 26. City of Rochester residents like Conyer, who never grew up around this kind of stuff.

“You take something with you each day as you leave from the farm,” he said. “Whether it be using what you learned here, and to apply that to life, or using that to actually apply it to agricultural skills. And I think those are both very big things, especially in a time like this, in the world where it's like, unhealthy times.“

Farming is an outlet, and the fruits — and vegetables — of their labor are already paying off.

“Farming is a great vehicle to teach different kinds of job readiness skills,” said Kincaid. “You have to be adaptable, you have to be planful.”

So far, well more than 100 pounds of produce grown on the South Lawn has been donated to local food pantries.

“I’ve always had an interest in stuff like this,” said Conyer. “Reflecting on it, I think that my younger self would be happy, too. I've learned how to do more stuff than just stick my hands in the dirt.“