While the Stanislaus County Fair may be over, there is still opportunities to support local youth and agriculture.

Turlock’s Westside Ministries, a faith-based organization offering social and education opportunities to local youth in need, have long had a strong focus on agriculture. The ministry has urban gardens on two properties and youth from the area plant, care for and harvest fruits, vegetables and flowers from the gardens to show at the annual Stanislaus County Fair and to sell for extra money. This group, named the Ghetto Gardeners, offers fresh produce and flower boxes to sell weekly on Wednesdays through the summer.

For $25, locals can pick up a box of fresh-grown squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, nectarines, peaches and flowers. For an additional $5 donation, the gardeners will deliver the box to local addresses. Those interested in getting a produce box can Venmo Westside Ministries to reserve a box or come by the ministry from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, while supplies last.

The Ghetto Gardeners will also be hosting a dinner drive-thru fundraiser from 4 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday at 950 Columbia St., Turlock. The $10 dinner includes pulled pork, roll, butter, broccoli salad, sweet beans and dessert.

Another agriculture-based program at Westside Ministries is its Turlock Grange chapter. The ministry has land outside the city limits where they house hogs, chickens and rabbits that youth can raise and show at the fair as part of the Turlock Grange.

Westside Ministries Founder and Director JoLynn DiGrazia said that that had between 30 and 50 youths participate in the Ghetto Gardeners this year and 25 kids in the Turlock Grange.

DiGrazia said she believes it’s important to offer these programs on the westside to give kids access to agricultural education.

“It gives kids access and hands-on experience that they wouldn't normally have. Like, for instance, because we also cater and cook the food that they grow and the meat that they raise, we recently were asked by the Stanislaus County Fair to cater the hospitality room for the Friends of the Fair. It was a great experience for the kids. And many of them were very uncomfortable at first because I asked them to pass hors d'oeuvres, but it built their confidence. The comments that the people had back for them were: ‘these kids are amazing.’ Like they're surprised because they're also kids that they see on the street that maybe they would talk ill of. So, it takes away the barrier, and they're able to enter into spaces and into the lives of people that can really help them for the rest of their lives,” she said.

For more information about the Ghetto Gardeners or the Turlock Grange chapter at Westside Ministries, visit: www.westsideministriesturlock.com.

To order a produce box, visit Westside Ministries on Venmo or call DiGrazia at 209-604-0840.