06/05/2026
For the last two years through Your Move MKE Hip-Hop Hangouts, our summer program has rented a garden bed at Bumblebee Garden. We’ve worked alongside community members to keep the space maintained, grow fresh vegetables with our youth, and create opportunities to teach about urban agriculture, community development, and why green spaces matter in our neighborhoods.
This year, we won’t be renting a bed at Bumblebee Garden. With everything we have going on this summer, we’re shifting our focus and partnering with the Hydroponics H2O Program, our The Beginning MKE partner, to help maintain the community garden planters being placed throughout the Lincoln and Mitchell corridors. These are the same planters built by our Urban Trade Skills youth and painted by our Peace Fam Graffiti Crew.
Don’t worry—every young person who helped build and paint the planters was paid for their work thanks to our funders and our partnership with Uncom. We believe in investing in youth and making sure they are compensated for the skills, time, and creativity they bring to these projects.
Yesterday, a few Uncom youth and one of our youth volunteers headed over to Bumblebee Garden for one last cleanup of our bed. It was a bittersweet moment. We’ve made a lot of memories in that space over the last couple years. But we also took pride in leaving it better than we found it, cleaned up and ready for the next gardener to make it their own. We even left behind a few onion roots for whoever comes next.
As one chapter closes, another one opens. We’re excited to see these new community planters take root across the neighborhood and continue creating spaces where young people can learn, build, and give back to the community.
If you have a young person who hasn’t signed up for summer programming yet, tap in. Hip-Hop Hangouts kicks off June 22, and we’ve got a lot planned. Between field trips, creative projects, hands-on learning, and community work, this summer is shaping up to be one of our best yet.
For numbers sake- we currently have 17 Youth Employee’s and 31 youth signed up for summer!
