The Week at a Glance for a Sankofa Intern

Writer Amiyah Stradford has been a youth farmer at Sankofa Community Farm since 2018. She runs the Farm’s blog, which you can read here.

I’m sure you’ve always wondered what happens on a day-to-day basis for interns at the farm. Well, I’m here to give you the rundown! 

Our weeks start off with Monday of course, and due to quarantine, most of our work is online-based. Our two leaders named Gianna & Andrea send out five assignments every week on Google Classroom that are due by Friday night. They include writing journals on our goals, documenting our at-home garden beds, and coming up with projects to better our communities! 

Tuesday is when the Green team (about 12 students) comes in bright and early along with the staff at 8:30AM. There are quick snacks like bananas, granola bars, & fruit snacks to bring up everyone’s energy if they didn’t eat breakfast! All students are expected to come prepared with a water bottle, a pen, mask, & clothes to get dirty in, of course! We do work such as helping Ms. Laquanda (our chef and fellow farmer) prepare bags for the Friday cooking class, weeding, planting, harvesting, and the other daily duties of a farmer! 

Wednesday is a day just for everyone to work on their assignments at home, work on their home garden beds, and stay inside! We still have to make sure we’re staying safe.

Thursday is when the Red team comes in to do basically the same duties at the Green team. On one of these days, Mr. Chris (co-founder & fellow farmer of Sankofa) will give his lesson where he teaches the interns about African-American History, or as we call it “The New Freedom School”. We wrote a whole article about Mr. Chris & his life last year, so go back to our posts and check it out if you’re interested!

Friday is an exciting day because all interns come together on two zoom calls! The first one is led by Gianna & Andrea (mentioned above) to talk about wellness & personal goals while the other is later in the day & led by Ms. Laquanda. Using the bags filled with ingredients given to everyone, students get on the zoom call to watch an online cooking class! There is also an assignment on Google Classroom where students can reflect on this experience. The class is important because it’s setting students up to know how to cook fresh, home-grown ingredients and learn how to basically take care of themselves & learn independence. 

For me, Saturdays & Sundays are for writing! I take all the information I gathered during the week and write a story to share with you all! I edit pictures, create stories, dissect interviews and keep up with our social media platforms such as Instagram! 

I hope you enjoyed this look into our lives and got a better understanding of what exactly it is we do!