Manuel Jimenez, a small farm advisor, also runs a program in the 14-acre botanical garden in Woodlake, Calif., engaging youth in agriculture to teach them life skills and to avoid gangs.
(Gosia Wozniacka/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Farming program deters youths from joining gang
In a Calif. town, kids learn habits that apply to life
Manuel Jimenez, a small farm advisor, also runs a program in the 14-acre botanical garden in Woodlake, Calif., engaging youth in agriculture to teach them life skills and to avoid gangs.
(Gosia Wozniacka/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
When Manuel Jimenez first set eyes on the land below a levee, thick with brush and weeds, the one-time field worker envisioned a place where youngsters could escape the temptations of gang life and learn about the Central Valley’s most vital industry. But, like many places in California’s farming belt, this Tulare County town of 7,280 flanked by citrus groves had few resources. Best known for its annual rodeo, Woodlake has been devastated by gangs. More than forty percent of its families, many poor Latino immigrant farmworkers, live in poverty.
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