Page 42
EPIB Trail
Volume 12, Issue 1
HOW I BECAME AN URBAN FARMER By Naajia Shakir The summer of 2019 was full of excitement, anxiety, and sadness about the things that have been happening. I always try my best to fight or spread awareness about the issues that affect my community and others in this country. However, there is only so much one is able to do. So, this summer I had the opportunity to work at a local farm in my home town of Camden, NJ where I managed the farmers' market there. This internship was apart of a multifaceted program, Resilient Roots, with a non-profit organization entitled Vietlead. There are different tiers in the program depending on how advanced one is with their knowledge of plants and gardening. Typically, high school students start out in Resilient Roots, in which they learn about social and food injustices along with learning farm skills and cooking with fresh vegetables from the farm. The next year they are be able to become a Sprout (farm assistant), the majority of their tasks consist of planting, weeding, pruning, and watering. They mostly just help the managers with all the tasks for the farm. The year after being a Sprout, one can be promoted to a Land Gourdian (farm manager), this is what my position was this past Summer.
Though the process for each tier of the summer program seems meticulous, I actually didn't come through the program in the conventional
