TOLEDO, Ohio — At the start of the summer, 50 kids involved in the Urban Wholistics Seed to Bloom had a goal to bring new life to Toledo's Junction neighborhood.
Through digging, planting and watering fresh fruits and vegetables, the youth farmers were making big plans to survive record-breaking temperatures.
If you believe you are what you eat, then you believe kids like 14-year-old Mi'kayla Ferguson are thriving products of their environment.
"It's just like a very good hands-on experience that we have and especially in communities that don't really have a lot," Ferguson said.
The summer had challenges, though.
"We had to be very innovative in the fact of growing and creating our own pesticides and we are just actively here. We survived 90-degree weather and sun," said Sonia Flunder-McNair, the founder of Urban Wholistics.
After bringing in a new water system and hoop house, the youth farmers consistently tended to their crops every Thursday and Friday.
Youth leader Via Bridges said the proof is in their summer bloom. She said the hoop house has watermelon, zucchini, eggplant, squash, strawberries and raspberries.
In the last week of the Seed to Bloom program, the students shared the same sentiment.
"The end of the summer is always kind of bittersweet, but it's also really rewarding because the kids get to see all their hard work pay off," Bridges said. "You look around and all the kids are like 'wow, we planted all of this.'"
Ferguson said she is excited to return to the program next summer.
"It's just amazing. It's an amazing experience to have," she said.
They will close their season this summer with a harvest gathering.
"One thing that we will do tomorrow is welcome the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department," Flunder-McNair said. "We will have 25 service-learning youth coming from Cleveland. And we have just an array of people who will come and bless our grounds and volunteers that will come and help us pull some of our weeds and help us harvest because the harvest is bountiful."