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Youth Explore Food System Careers, Again

Think back to when you were 15 years old… Did you know what you wanted to do with your career and your life after high school? Did you know how to make it happen, or who to ask for guidance? Did a food career ever cross your mind?

As part of our Youth in Food Systems program, we have been running an interview series project that gives high school aged volunteers a chance to interview professionals and students in the agricultural and food sectors, to learn about their jobs and experiences. This allows for them, as well as anyone else viewing the interview, to better understand the plethora of important and interesting jobs available within our food systems.

Season 2 of the Food Leader Interview Series, which we called “What Do You Bring to the Table?” in consultation with our youth participants, began in June 2022 with the onboarding of our “Interviewers”. They eagerly participated in some informal training alongside summer staff to practice the challenging skill of conducting an interview. They then selected who they’d like to interview (their “Interviewee”), created interview questions, communicated with their selected individuals, and carried out the video interviews. Following this, our editors and designers stepped in to trim and edit the videos and convert them into audio podcast episodes. The information from the interviews was also converted into career profile infographics. The final product: eight video interviews, eight podcast episodes, and eight career profiles.

The video and audio episodes were published between September 29, 2022 and March 16, 2023, and the Career Profiles page was published on March 20, 2023, bringing Season 2 to a close. This season, we had a chance to connect with and bring on eight fantastic food leaders with varied and interesting backgrounds:

Food Policy Advising
Plant Agriculture
Urban Agriculture Management
Program Coordination
Farm Ownership
Food Animal Medicine
Culinary Operations
Decarbonization Research

40% of Canadian farmers are set to retire in the next ten years; 1 in 8 jobs in Canada are in the agriculture and food sectors and there are significant acute and chronic shortages of workers from farm to fork. But most young people are unaware of these plentiful and varied opportunities, or don’t consider these career paths to be viable. This crucial sector is underappreciated and even misunderstood by today’s career seekers. It’s time to rebrand agri-food to appeal to young people at the critical high school age when they are exploring and making decisions about what they want to do with their lives.

Studies have highlighted the importance of both exposure and mentorship in youth motivations to pursue agriculture and food work. Having information about a particular career and its opportunities is significantly related to the educational and occupational aspirations of young people, as is access to role models. This is our goal with the Interview Series: to give youth a chance to learn about the food sectors from potential mentors, and to do so in a way that is youth-driven from start to finish.

This past year, we were grateful to have worked with Good Roots Consulting to conduct a formal third-party evaluation of Youth in Food Systems. Our favourite piece of this was the Participant Impact Stories that emerged, including one that comes from Gabrielle. Gabrielle was an Interviewer in both Season 1 and Season 2, and will be returning as a training co-facilitator for Season 3:

Gabrielle Asamoah

Gabrielle Asamoah volunteers as an interviewer for the Youth in Food Systems program’s Food Leader Interview series. The interviews connect youth with people working in food systems careers to learn about education and employment paths, and then share those learnings through YouTube videos, podcasts and infographics.

Gabrielle really enjoys the process of conducting the interviews with people who have different roles across the food system and appreciates the open communication she has with program staff. “I think it was definitely something that made the process go smoother and gave me less concern about if I were to run into any incidents or mishap with the interviews, I could definitely find someone easily to ask for help,” she shared.

As a result of taking part in the Youth in Food Systems program, Gabrielle feels she has gained valuable conversation skills, such as how to maintain flow, be attentive, and keep an open mind. “I think that's thanks to the opportunity of interviewing where you have to really pay attention to what your interviewee is saying,” she explained. “I think those are practical skills and are also transferable skills which you can use in the workplace.”

Gabrielle also shared that conducting the interviews has helped further her understanding about food systems: “In the education I've been given, you don't actually learn too much about food systems in the depth that I've had the opportunity to experience in interviews. I'm really grateful for that as well because now I can think more complexly about subjects of food systems and also career paths in food systems as well.”

One career path that Gabrielle recently learned about through an interview is that of a program coordinator at a non-profit. “With my interview with them, it was very captivating to see what they could do in the food systems with program coordinating and I think it really is inspiring to put together a program that can further someone's insight on a very specific industry,” she shared.

Moving forward, Gabrielle feels she will be more open to taking opportunities that are presented to her as a result of her participation in the Youth in Food Systems program. “This was an opportunity that was given to me and if I hadn't taken that I wouldn't have accumulated this experience or this mindset, or even the skills I have today.”

You can view all five impact stories here.

And a huge thank you to our major funders of this project: the Gay Lea Foundation, The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation, and the Peterborough K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation.