Brookline grant gives teens a chance to garden

By Andreae Downs, Globe Correspondent

With the receipt last month of a $5,000 Brookline Community Foundation grant, Bountiful Brookline is launching a Teens Grow Food pilot summer program.

The funds will allow four teens to help develop a leadership and urban gardening initiative, which will further the work of Bountiful Brookline, growing food in small spaces around town and distributing it to the Brookline Food Pantry — and eventually, perhaps, to sell it.

“This came out of the bigger mission of Bountiful Brookline to engage youth around food,” said founder Cathy Neal.

This summer, the teen program will flush out the parameters of a larger teen gardener initiative, visit farms and small gardens, talk with health professionals about nutrition, and demonstrate the “interconnectedness” of local food. Interested teens should contact Neal at bountifulbrookline@gmail.com.