By Scot Kersgaard, JVA Consulting

Urban agriculture is changing everything. It is changing how people eat. It is changing how people view vacant urban land (not to mention front and back yards). Perhaps most important, it is providing a launching point for some of Denver’s most powerful youth leaders, through GreenLeaf.

GreenLeaf, founded in 2009, works with a crew of youth ages 14-18. During its five years, it has worked with over 50 youth and has harvested over 10,000 pounds of produce–15% of which has been donated to hunger relief organizations such as Project Angel Heart and the Denver Rescue Mission. The rest has been sold at affordable prices to residents in Denver’s food deserts.

GreenLeaf is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a party on its urban farm at 25th and Lawrence in Denver’s Sustainability Park on Saturday, September 27. The party–with a suggested donation of $10–will be from 5-9 p.m. and is part of a GreenLeaf’s Harvest Campaign fundraising drive. GreenLeaf is working to raise $20,000 before October 15. As of September 22 it is more than halfway to that goal.

GreenLeaf is not just putting inner-city kids to work growing food. It also has a curriculum that promotes youth leadership opportunities and teaches about food justice. GreenLeaf youth serve on the organization’s board of directors and no new students are hired without a consensus vote of the students already involved. In fact, the organization just hired a new executive director, and that decision, too, was determined by consensus, not just of the board but of the youth currently in the program.

“The youth are the key decision-makers for GreenLeaf,” says Laura McGarry, one of JVA Consulting’s senior grantwriters. McGarry is a founding board member of the group and has dedicated much of her time to the organization over the past five years, working with the founder and other board members to grow the grassroots organization from a pilot program in 2009 to a year-round youth-led organization that is now thriving.

GreenLeaf pays all of its youth participants a fair wage for their work growing food and developing their leadership skills through an afterschool and summer program. After graduating high school, GreenLeaf participants can apply for a position as a mentern—a mentor/intern who has a more in-depth leadership role and develops and manages GreenLeaf projects.

“The passion and capacity of the youth in the program is incredible,” McGarry says. “They are smart, driven, funny and powerful; we are lucky to have them as the future leaders in our community.”