It’s just after 4 p.m. on a recent day at the LEAF farm in Landisburg, Pa. About a half-dozen high school students gather in a circle — socially distanced, of course — just before hitting the fields and greenhouses of this 2.5-acre farm.

Heidi Witmer huddles the group together for some announcements before giving way to Amber Bahn, farm manager, who doles out the assignments for the night: One student gets to harvest early-season lettuce, another gets to clean up one of the vegetable beds, while another will be manning the washing station and washing up some greens.

It’s also one student’s birthday. “Happy Birthday …” the group shouts in unison.

For these students, working on the farm is not only about making a few bucks, but also learning about farming, food and, most importantly, each other.

"I have always had this three-part passion of being an educator, being a farmer and being someone who cares about the good of our community. Through LEAF, I've had the privilege of bringing them all together," says Witmer, who founded the LEAF (Learning, Education and Farming) Project nine years ago.

Sure, these students bring useful labor on this intense small farm — 40 different crops grown on only 2.5 acres — but it’s through hard work and innovation that Witmer hopes to cultivate the next generation of leaders.

“So to cultivate for us means to work in partnership with something that already knows what it is; it’s alive," she says. "So just like you can’t make a pepper plant into a lettuce plant, you can’t tell a teenager to be something other than what they already are. Like good farmers, our job is to create a circumstance where they can realize their fullest bounty as a person."

The program recruits 14- to 18-year-olds from local high schools for summer internships on the farm where they work five days a week making a $35 daily stipend. The youths harvest fields, pack produce, sell at farmers markets and do other jobs.

They apply and participate in a group interview process that includes a work task. A five-person recruitment team makes final crew selections based on diversity of personality, gender, geography and background.

Isaac Landis, 15, never envisioned himself working on a farm before taking a LEAF internship. “I was lazy before I came here; I’m not going to lie,” he says. Being part of LEAF has allowed him to experience farming firsthand and meet people with completely different backgrounds.

Up to 30 youths work on Level 1 crews in the summer with the option to return for fall and winter work. They work on the LEAF farm as well as on six partner farms, Witmer says. The farm offers leadership opportunities where they can advance to Level 2 crews to hone their leadership skills and make connections to the broader food system.  

“They'll take on responsibility for profit analysis, for marketing, for understanding our outreach efforts and how effective they are," she says.

About 100 youths have “graduated” from the program, and about 10% have gone on to become farmers or have gotten jobs in agriculture. But Witmer says the program is much more than teaching youths how to farm.

"Our goal in the first two weeks … is to catch them being excellent at something. And that concept translates hopefully into whatever occupational vocation they get into 10 years from now," she says. “These bigger-picture ideas of like the value of a dollar and how to make yourself valuable in the workplace, food is such a great way to teach it because it's such a tiny profit margin industry.”

Melding farming and education

Witmer grew up on a farm and ran a private girls' school before launching the LEAF Project with her husband, Shane Kaplan, and a small group of friends.

She wanted to address the growing disconnect between people and farming, but she also wanted to give young people, especially at-risk youth, a chance at a decent job.

She heard of an urban farm apprenticeship program in Boston and traveled there to see what it was all about. She liked the idea of providing summertime farm work to youths and modeled the LEAF Project to reach local youths in the Harrisburg area.

The youths run the gamut from farm kids to city kids and suburban kids. But what makes the program unique, Witmer says, is that it incentivizes and empowers young people by giving them decision-making abilities on the farm.

“The way I grew up, you were running your own ventures at the age of 14, you were responsible for every part of the endeavor, and you would get support from other people, but you were successful or not on your own,” she says.

After the summer program ends, the youths can apply for fall and winter programs, one of which involves evaluating LEAF, making recommendations for improvements, and looking at the challenges and problems of local food systems.

They also develop marketing plans for the next growing season and decide what crops will be grown and in what quantity.

"And so people really get excited at innovating systems here," Witmer says. "We're trying to teach hustle, and food is a great way to teach hustle."

‘Life-changing’ experience

Isaac Landis, 15, never envisioned himself working on a farm before taking a LEAF internship. “I was lazy before I came here; I’m not going to lie,” he says.

Being part of LEAF has allowed him to experience farming firsthand and meet people with completely different backgrounds.

“It’s definitely an experience I will never forget,” he says. “If I continue this, I can see myself 100% as a farmer. I never thought I would come into this field at all.”

Jeremiah Allu’s family is from India, but he grew up just outside Harrisburg, Pa. He’s in his first year in the LEAF Project, and it’s already made an impression on him. He’s learned how to prep vegetable beds, how to grow seed and even pack vegetables.

“So, next summer I want to be on the farm team where I get to be in charge of such things like maintaining the neatness of the beds, watching over the crops, seeing what they need,” he says.

In some ways, his LEAF co-workers have become his second family.

“It’s really a unique experience. It’s like once in a lifetime,” he says. “You can stay connected to people for a long time and get to know them. We can see them opening up about themselves and their life experiences and what’s going on with them.”

For the youths who want to eventually get into farming, Witmer says they provide additional training, including participating in one of the country’s only vegetable apprenticeship programs to test their skills and figure out whether they have what it takes to make it in the business.

“I take that really seriously, and I don't think everyone should [farm] because it takes a level of tenacity and rigor that not everybody is called to, and I really don't want to be part of the problem of people thinking that farming is really fun, it's nice to be in the sun," she says. “Everybody should have an experience of hands in the soil if only to respect the food on the table for the rest of your life.”

Witmer says there’s something unique about working with young people.

“I’m learning a lot about working with different personalities and about motivating different groups of people, and I think young people demand a lot from adult leadership right now, as well they should," she says.