Outreach

The Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is continually looking for ways to expand its outreach to enterprise and future business leaders. The Forum recently connected the Manistee site of YouthBuild Northwest to two local businesses to get a first-hand look.

When students from the YouthBuild Manistee visited Food for Thought in Benzie County, they weren't there to learn about construction. The visit was tied to a part of the YouthBuild program that's designed to teach the students leadership skills. In this case they were learning about entrepreneurship and sustainable businesses.

"We tossed around a lot of ideas and one of those ideas that came about was let's look into entrepreneurship," said Sue Oseland, YouthBuild Site Supervisor. "To get the youth exposed to the possibility of sometime in their future perhaps being able to start and grow their own business."

Food for Thought, which sells a variety of organic and wild harvested food products, was one of two sustainable businesses the students visited. They also stopped by Douglas Valley Organic Vineyard Community, an organic vineyard and orchard near Manistee. At both places students had a chance to learn about the economic, social and environmental aspects of running a sustainable business.

"One of the things we do here is a lot of composting," said Timothy Young, Founder and President of Food for Thought. "All the organic waste...goes in to the compost piles."

The business visits were organized by the Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum. Sustainable businesses were selected because YouthBuild instructors would like the students to start making some kind of a product while following a sustainable business model.

"The youth recycle pretty much everything that doesn't get used on all of our job sites," said Oseland. "So we have a pretty good base or foundation for building something which is sustainable."

More YouthBuild Northwest information.