Summer Green Team
CAMBRIDGE
WHO: Rising 5th through 8th graders
WHERE: Cambridge Street Upper School and Putnam Avenue Upper School
WHEN: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Session 1, The Science of Gardening, July 6 - 24, 2026
Session 2, Growing Green Communities, July 27 - August 7, 2026
WHAT: The Summer Green Team is a free program hosted at CitySprouts garden sites across Boston and Cambridge each year. It is designed for middle grade students and provides opportunities to learn gardening, cooking, and leadership skills while working and spending time outdoors. Youth learn to be leaders and stewards in their community through a combination of garden work, STEAM-focused projects, and field trips to green spaces within their community. By working on local urban gardens and meeting with community leaders, the program aims to provide youth the opportunity to identify issues they are passionate about and envision an endless array of possibilities for their future.
BOSTON
WHO: Rising 5th and 6th graders
WHERE: to be determined. Keep looking back!
WHEN: July 7 - August 7, 2026
Applications for Summer 2026 Cambridge sites are now OPEN. Applications for Boston site, run in partnership with Boston Public Schools Fifth Quarter, exclusively open to BPS students. See HERE for further information.
Questions? E-mail Alex Frank at afrank@citysprouts.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The program is FREE!
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We review applications on a rolling basis beginning on April 1. If your youth is accepted into the program you will receive an email asking you to confirm the details of your application. A youth will not be registered for the program until you confirm their intent to attend. This helps us ensure that we are able to fill all the slots we have available.
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Youth will receive a stipend for their work caring for CitySprouts garden provided they meet attendance and participation requirements.
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While gardening is a big focus of the program, Green Team groups do a wide variety of activities every day. We take extra care to work in the garden in the mornings when temperatures are lowest, and all staff are trained to identify and treat any symptoms of heat exhaustion. We have classrooms reserved inside to escape the heat and will have crafts, experiments, and cooking activities that all relate back to the garden.
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As a tuition-free program the Green Team holds a strict 75% attendance policy to ensure the youth involved participate fully. If you have concerns about your ability to meet that attendance policy please reach out directly to Alex Frank at afrank@citysprouts.org. Failure to meet the attendance policy may result in removal from the program and forfeiture of the stipend.
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The Green Team partners with Food Services at Cambridge and Boston Public Schools, so the meals are determined by them. If you have dietary restrictions or concerns please be sure to inform us ahead of time so we can make arrangements to ensure your youth’s needs are met.
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Field trips vary year-to-year. We take extra care to ensure that our trips focus on learning about and connecting with green spaces and communities throughout Boston and Cambridge. To get an idea about what kinds of trips we go on, check out last year’s summer recap.
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CitySprouts runs three separate sites, two in Cambridge, and one through Boston Public Schools Fifth Quarter Program. Local youth may apply to our Cambridge sites, with priority given to Cambridge residents. ONLY Boston Public School students may apply to our Boston program.
Read about previous programming here.
