Feature
ASTORIA
YOUTHMARKET
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Every Saturday morning, Long Island City health
coach Michelle Cady makes it her mission to hustle
over to the Youthmarket Farm Stand right in front
of Ditmars Park. But it isn’t just the quality of the
market’s leafy greens that make Cady such a loyal
customer; it’s the staff.
“They have high school students running it and
they have been super,” Cady said.
Youthmarket Farm Stands are a series of farmer’s-market
40 OCTOBER 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
style produce stands across the city of New
York. Local farmers provide the fruits, vegetables,
eggs and other food items that are delivered by truck
before 9 am. But it is up to the handful of teens
at each stand to unload the truck, assemble the
stand, arrange produce, check inventory, work the
cash register and provide cooking demonstrations.
A manager will watch over the teens but will leave
the majority the work required to run each stand
to be done by the high school students ranging
from the ages of 16 to 20. The teens that man
each of Youthmarket’s 15 locations are from the
neighborhoods they serve.
Photos courtesy of Nirvana Singh
/www.qns.com
