Session: Construction + Community, Fall 2021

Builders: 13 teen builders

Materials: Douglas fir 2×4, 2×2, and 4×4 lumber, pine 1×6 lumber, exterior paint, wood screws.

Description: In our inaugural Construction + Community course, our teen students built a farm stand for Urban Tilth, a food justice farming organization in North Richmond (and the home of our chicken pavilion!). The building experiences of our girls and gender-expansive youth varied—many had worked with Girls Garage before, whereas some were brand new to our community—but every student was eager to learn, collaborate, and cheer each other on. With the instruction of Emily Pilloton-Lam and Augusta Sitney, our teen crew practiced fundamental building skills—using the miter saw, speed square, drill and impact drivers—to create the frame of the farm stand. The stand itself combined an angled top shelf to allow for drainage and trays of seedlings, a lower shelf for storage, and upper boxes for additional produce or plants.

The farmers at Urban Tilth were thrilled with the final farm stand, which will hold seedlings that community members can take for free. We love Urban Tilth for their unconditional support for urban agriculture and ecological education, and this farmstand will provide free seedlings to educators and others to start their own agricultural practices!