Tyrone Cherry isn’t originally from Petersburg, but he’s taught at every school in the city. After 20 years of being a local educator, the former biology teacher hasn’t just mentored a generation of Petersburg’s children — he’s taught their children, too.
A little over a decade ago, Cherry started a mentorship program for teen boys and young men in the city, helping tutor and prepare them for college while he was still teaching full-time in Petersburg. One of their grandfathers was an avid gardener, inspiring the group to start their own community garden in Cherry’s front yard.
“We were identifying challenges in the community and trying to find solutions to those challenges,” Cherry told The Progress-Index. “The first challenge that we identified was the fact that we lived in a food desert.”…