Progress 08/15/18 to 08/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:This program is intentionally focused on and primarily participated in by students and families who live and attend school in Southwest Philadelphia. Many visitors live immediately next door at Bartram Village, a 499-unit public housing complex managed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. As reported in the 2019 American Community Survey, Southwest Philadelphia has more than 30,000 households, and more than 80% of those identify as Black or African-American. After generations of racist municipal, systemic, and business policies, Southwest Philadelphia is today one of the poorest, most industrialized areas in the city and features one of the city's largest concentrations of food-insecure households. Census figures show that citywide, nearly one in four Philadelphians live in poverty; Southwest Philadelphia is even poorer, with 29.9% of residents living below the poverty line, including 41% of children below the age of 18. Only 25.4% of residents have a bachelor's degree, and the median annual household income is just $34,579. The majority of public schools in our neighborhood are ranked among the lowest-performing schools in the state. The local high school, Bartram High School, has frequently appeared on the state's list of persistently dangerous schools, defined as schools with more than 20 dangerous incidents per year. Southwest Philadelphia is also a food desert, with between 0 and 8% tree coverage. 32.2% of neighbors receive public food or income assistance, including 65.6% of families with children. Outdoor recreation is limited, as caregivers report concerns having children play outside near the neighborhood's many vacant lots and 100 abandoned industrial sites. With the onset of the pandemic, this community has also faced additional health and access disparities, with high levels of infection relative to wealthier neighboring areas. Changes/Problems:This season marked the first full year of uninterrupted on-site operations since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, including a full complement of regular volunteer activities to support ongoing planting, weeding, harvesting, and site maintenance. The return of regular volunteering significantly streamlined the season's work, and we look forward to continuing to refine this offering in future years. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In addition to learning about urban agriculture and supporting plantings and harvesting at the Farm and orchard, students partook in professional and personal development lessons on various topics including: New Urban Freedom School teachings, mental health care, cultural foodways featuring lessons from guest chefs from diverse backgrounds, and building and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships. Other training and professional development opportunities included: In 2021, the Garden hired a full-time Youth Advocate to support youth engaging in programs, thanks in part to the accreditation of the Garden as an approved provider for youth workforce development by the Philadelphia Youth Network and Philadelphia Works. The Youth Advocate works not only with interns at the Sankofa Community Farm but also with the Garden's other two workforce development programs, creating opportunities among youth cohorts for shared learning and skill-building. The 2021-2022 season also saw the pilot year of the first full-time year-round young adult apprenticeship, a program which offers continuing workforce opportunities for young adults, and which grew to employ 4 apprentices, all graduates of the Garden's youth programs Field trips to the annual PHS Flower Show and to Longwood Gardens to learn about horticulture-focused job and internship opportunities and network with professionals Provided with access to ongoing academic support and college and career readiness through a partnership with Harcum College's Upward Bound program Received one-on-one support and feedback from the Garden's development staff for grants and funding opportunities to support individual projects Led informational tours of the Farm in collaboration with Garden staff for funding partners and for federal, state, and municipal government officials Trained Southwest community members to assist with weekly farmstand markets How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Youth interns serve as ambassadors for the Farm and Garden, disseminating and sharing new knowledge with their community. Through intentional and intergenerational programming, youth are encouraged to share their teachings on a range of topics including gardening, urban agriculture, cooking, and health and wellness. Youth interns are also encouraged to learn from their elders to facilitate means of connection through exchange and dialogue. Youth engage in knowledge sharing through a variety of means including: Through hosting free workshops on the basics of gardening for community gardeners and at-home gardening program participants Creating and disseminating informational videos and other online resources to share skills with community members and others unable to access the Garden Participating and sharing at meetings with SWWAG network partners and at youth grower events Leading workshops on cooking and gardening at local schools, camps, and recreation centers Facilitating farmstand purchases and talking with customers about how to prepare different kinds or types of produce Welcoming volunteers to support the Farm & Garden, and by leading volunteers in small groups to work on specific projects, thereby strengthening leadership and public speaking skills while skill-sharing with volunteers and community members Tabling at the Garden's entrance on Lindbergh Boulevard to connect with community members and share resources about the community garden program and at-home gardening program Training Southwest Philadelphia community members to assist with weekly farmstand markets Sharing personal reflections or program updates through the Garden's various communications channels, such as on social media, blog posts, or in contributions to special issues of the Southwest Globe Times What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Increase production and consumption of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables in Southwest Philadelphia. Outcome 1: Produced and distributed approximately 15,000 pounds annually of fresh, organic, African Diaspora-focused fruits and vegetables through low-cost weekly farmstands, market partnerships, and pick-your-own days at the Sankofa Community Farm. Outcome 2: Strengthened and expanded the Southwest and West Philadelphia Area Growers network (SWWAG) and successfully maintained and deepened shared programming, technical collaboration, and fundraising. Goal 2: Foster and strengthen a local and independent network of growers, producers, and advocates Outcome 1: A select group of the youth internship cohort in 2021 continued participating in networking and advocacy activities over the winter and leading into the 2022 growing season. Their activities included supporting and participating in sitewide volunteer days, continued learning focused on the African New Urban Freedom School curriculum, and continued college and career readiness preparations in partnership with Harcum College's Upward Bound program. Outcome 2: Regular meetings with SWWAG partners continued through the winter months to discuss and organize workshop series, plan for citywide youth council recruitment, and organize the regional youth summit. In Spring 2022, Sankofa staff and youth led a networking retreat on-site at the Farm, and welcomed more than 80 local growers, farmers, food educators, and youth leaders for a full day of fieldwork, workshops, and a farm fresh meal together. The event's success has made organizers hopeful to reprise the event and establish it as an annual event at the beginning of the busy spring planting season. Goal 3: Build awareness of neighborhood-centered urban agriculture and facilitate its expansion Outcome 1: 2021 saw significant planning and expansion for the youth-led home garden bed program, culminating in more than 100 beds installed by Summer 2022. Neighbors expressed joy that the program has continued even as pandemic restrictions have eased, allowing them the opportunity to explore growing their own produce with additional support and knowledge provided by the youth growers. In addition to the home garden beds provided by the program, 2022 saw the expansion of these beds to include institutional gardens at schools and local community gardens such as Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School, John Bartram High School, and the Community College of Philadelphia. At these institutional sites, youth interns work alongside staff to help to build the beds onsite at the farm, create plans for planting and maintenance, and even help the host institutions to create relevant programming. The institutional side of this program prioritizes depth over breadth, focusing on creating customized and thoroughly supported programs that provide hands-on learning opportunities and exposure for students who may need support in identifying, cultivating, and pursuing their appreciation for horticulture. Outcome 2: Noting that building awareness of Sankofa Community Farm is key to both distribution of produce and to continued growth and participation in its programs and those of SWWAG partners, targeted outreach and recruitment efforts were made to reach Southwest and West Philadelphia neighbors who are the target audience for this program. Outreach efforts included: Neighborhood and on-site banner advertisements Text message notices delivered via an opt-in Southwest Philadelphia text message list Street team outreach and flyer distribution to local institutions including schools, libraries, and rec centers in the neighborhood Door-to-door canvassing in partnership with the residents' council at Bartram Village Seasonal and direct mail postcards to targeted zip codes of the neighborhood Recurring outreach and special coverage through the Southwest Globe Times newspaper, including a July 2022 issue with a special feature by a Sankofa youth leader, reflecting on the farmstand Working in collaboration with Garden communications staff, Sankofa youth contracted a local videographer and worked to develop a series of videos focused on individual growing techniques, to share skills like natural pest management or companion planting.
Publications
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Progress 08/15/20 to 08/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The majority of children and families who take part in this program live and attend school in Southwest Philadelphia. Many visitors live immediately next door at Bartram Village, a 499-unit public housing complex managed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Southwest Philadelphia is predominately Black or African-American (80.3%), with roughly 65,000 residents. After generations of racist municipal and business policies, Southwest Philadelphia is today one of the poorest, most industrialized areas in the city and one of the city's largest concentrations of food insecure households. Census figures show that citywide, nearly one in four Philadelphians lives in poverty; Southwest Philadelphia is even poorer, with 30.1% of residents living below the poverty line, including 44% of children below 18. Only 22.5% of residents have a bachelor's degree, and the median annual household income is just $32,741. The majority of public schools in our neighborhood are ranked among the lowest-performing schools in PA. The local high school, Bartram High School, has frequently appeared on the state's list of persistently dangerous schools, defined as schools with more than 20 dangerous incidents per year. Southwest Philadelphia is a food desert with between 0% and 8% tree coverage. 32.2% of neighbors receive public food or income assistance, including 65.6% of families with children. Outdoor recreation is limited, as caregivers report concerns having children play outside near the neighborhood's many vacant lots and 100 abandoned industrial sites. With the onset of the pandemic, this community reckoned with additional health disparities, with high levels of infection relative to wealthier neighboring areas. Changes/Problems:Although aspects of this project's implementation were forced to significantly adjust this year in light of the COVID19 pandemic, we anticipate continuing to fulfill the project's overall goals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In addition to learning about urban agriculture and supporting plantings ad harvesting at thefarm and orchard, studentspartook inprofessional and personal development lessons on various topicsincluding: New Urban Freedom School teachings, mental health care,cultural foodways featuring lessons from guest chefs from diverse backgrounds, and building & maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships. Other training and professional development opportunities included: Attended the 10th Youth Growers Market in Rittenhouse Square. Presented at the Franklin Institute's Youth's Climate Action Summit. Field trips to the annual PHS Flower Show and to Longwood Gardens to learn about horticulture-focused job/intern opportunities and network with professionals. Provided with access to ongoing academic support and college and career readiness througha partnership with Harcum College's Upward Bound program. Participated in season-long writing seminar with Pennsylvania University GSE PHD candidate,Oreoluwa Badaki. Students worked on a collaborativeafro-futuristic novel that included multi-media components. Led an informationaltour of the site with Congresswoman Joanna McClinton. Began training Southwest community members to assist with weekly farmstand markets. Attendedtrauma-informed professional development session alongside Farm staff. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Youth interns serve as ambassadors for the Farm &Garden, disseminating and sharing new knowledge with theircommunity. Through intentional and intergenerational programming, youth are encouraged to share their teachings on a range of topics including: gardening, urban agriculture, cooking, and health & wellness. Youth interns are also encouraged to learn from their elders to facilitate means of connection throughexchange and dialogue. Youth engage in knowledge sharing through a variety of means including: Through hosting free workshops on the basics of gardening for community gardeners and at-home gardening program participants. Participating and sharing atmeetings with SWWAG network partners and at youth grower events. Leading workshops on cooking and gardening at local schools, camps, and recreation centers. Welcoming volunteers to support the Farm & Garden. Youth leaders break volunteers into small groups and work on specific projects, providing leadership and public speaking practice while skill-sharing. Tabling at the Garden's entrance on Lindbergh Boulevard to connect with community members and share resources about the community garden program and at-home gardening program. Training Southwest community members to assist with weekly farmstand markets. Flyering about seasonal engagement opportunities andfree community eventsthroughout the immediate neighborhood. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?SWWAG partner meetings are planned for the upcoming winter months to discuss and organize the workshop series, citywide youth council recruitment, and the regional youth summit. Winter 2021 will also mark a period of planning and expansion for the youth-led home garden program which was an immediate success upon its launch in spring 2019. Demand has increased significantly in the last year due to the COVID19 pandemic and the pressing need for fresh, accessible produce and desired connection to hands-on activities in nature during times of quarantine and social distancing. Neighbors have expressed joy and relief that the program has continued, with over 100 beds installed at participating homes last season. A select group of the youth internship cohort will also continue over the winter months, focusing on African New Urban Freedom School Curriculum, supporting volunteer days including a sitewide Martin Luther King Day of Service, and continuing academic support & college and career readiness in partnership with Harcum College's Upward Bound program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal:The Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden and three additional farm partners in Southwest and West Philadelphia will enhance community food security by establishing a formal partnership and launching a new youth outreach focus to better support off-farm local and regional youth programming. Heldregular meetings with he Southwest and West Agriculture ("SWWAG") network partners The Sankofa Community Farm hosted the SWWAG summer partners meeting and collectively established the fall workshop series Goal:The Southwest and West Philadelphia farm collaborative will further local food sovereignty by hosting community-driven efforts to increase self-reliance and share intergenerational and intercultural foodways. Activities will include farm stands and markets, seasonal celebrations, educational workshops, youth-led cooking outreaches, and a new home gardening program. Held weekly neighborhood farm stands throughout the season at 54th and Lindbergh Boulevard Hosted free seasonal celebrations including: Honey Festival and Sankofa Festival Hosted 15 educational workshops on topics including; pest control, growing herbs, harvesting, and seasonal plantings. Welcomed local students for youth-led cooking outreaches Installed 100 garden beds throughout Southwest Philadelphia through the at-home gardening program. Expanded program to include the Urban Tree Connection network and the Haddington neighborhood per request of community members. Goal:The farm collaborative will foster local and regional networking opportunities for youth engaged in urban agriculture and community food security projects. Youth interns attended the 10th Youth Growers Market in Rittenhouse Square Youth presented at the Franklin Institute's Youth's Climate Action Summit Interns supported interview process for the new Youth Advocate/Social Worker position at Bartram's Garden Intern's led workshops and classes for students at local recreation centers on a semi-regular basis Youth took field trips to the annual PHS Flower Show and to Longwood Gardens to learn about horticulture-focused job/intern opportunities and network with professionals. Hired 3 alumni through partner organizations (Philaworks Fellows and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society) to help tend the farm. Supported gardening projects at local schools and recreation centers including: Woodland Academy (local preschool and daycare) andJohn Bartram High School. Goal:Aware that urban farming and community gardening provides valuable opportunities for participants to sample unfamiliar foods, leading to a stronger appreciation for and openness to other cultures (Draper), the farm collaborative will nurture opportunities for local youth and elders to share food traditions and foodways. Hosted community meals, free workshops, and volunteer days to welcome intergenerational audiences to share food traditions and foodways. Free community meals included a ten-year anniversary Sankofa Community Dinner that welcomed 50 community members including elders, youth, alumni, community gardeners, former staff, and volunteers. Goal:Improve awareness within the Southwest Philadelphia community of local access points for fresh produce, networking and skill share opportunities, and ways to be involved in food production. Employed new marketing strategy to focus on hyper-local audience. Shared opportunities and means for engagementthrough flyering (trolley stops and throughout the immediate neighborhood), local opt-in text thread, and signage throughout site and at multiple points of entry. Youth Legacy crew tabled at the Garden's entrance on Lindbergh Boulevard to connect with community members and share resources about the community garden program and at-home gardening program.
Publications
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Progress 08/15/19 to 08/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Located along the Tidal Schuylkill River in Southwest Philadelphia, Bartram's Garden is a 50-acre public park and National Historic Landmark. The Sankofa Community Farm spans four acres at the Garden's southern border, built on land reclaimed from underutilized recreational fields and spanning the popular Bartram's Mile recreational trail, currently the southernmost portion of the regional Schuylkill River Trail. An estimated 100,000 people visit Bartram's Garden each year. The majority of children and families who take part in this program live and attend school in Southwest Philadelphia, an area once known as Lenapehoking, or the ancestral lands of the Lenni Lenape. Many of the most frequent participants live immediately next door at Bartram Village, a 499-unit public housing complex managed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Southwest Philadelphia as a whole is predominately Black or African-American (80.3%), with roughly 65,000 residents. After generations of racist municipal and business policies, Southwest Philadelphia is today one of the poorest, most industrialized areas in the city. Census figures show that citywide, nearly one in four Philadelphians lives in poverty; Southwest Philadelphia is even poorer, with 30.1% of residents living below the poverty line, including 44% of children below 18. Only 22.5% of residents have a bachelor's degree, and the median annual household income is just $32,741. Southwest Philadelphia is also a food desert with between 0% and 8% tree coverage. 32.2% of neighbors receive public food or income assistance, including 65.6% of families with children. In addition, outdoor recreational access is limited, as many caregivers report concerns about having children play outside near the neighborhood's many vacant lots and more than 100 abandoned industrial sites. With the onset of the COVID19 pandemic in Spring 2020, this community reckoned with additional health disparities, with high levels of infection relative to wealthier neighboring areas. Despite these challenges, Southwest Philly has a rich and intergenerational neighborhood culture. African-American families with local roots stretching back generations live alongside recent immigrants from West Africa and Southeast Asia, including the country's largest population of Liberian immigrants; on holy days, music reverberates not just from Ezekiel Baptist Church but also from Khmer Palelai Buddhist Monastery. A recent analysis by PlanPhilly even revealed that the 19143 zip code, at the heart of Southwest Philadelphia, hosts more block parties than any other area of the city. The neighborhood also has a strong culture of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, with residents organizing everything from fish-fry fundraisers to school supply giveaways to ensure that neighbors are supported and celebrated in times of need. Programming and evaluation for this project focused on three discrete tiers of participants: Drop-in or casual participants in year-round free workshops, offered both to the general public and to members of our community garden program. Although workshops are normally offered in-person, since the onset of the pandemic, most have been facilitated via Zoom to ensure public safety. Although many participants enjoyed the Zoom workshops, local elders within our community garden program have been less able to participate in online programming. Recipients of home garden beds. Youth interns employed at the Sankofa Community Farm. Additional participants not evaluated include residents who shop for fresh produce at the farm's weekly farmstand, farm volunteers, and recreational visitors. Changes/Problems:Although aspects of this project's implementation were forced to significantly adjust this year in light of the COVID19 pandemic, we anticipate continuing to fulfill the project's overall goals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?To ensure that students could safely develop their technical skills for farming and harvesting, the interns were split into two groups, with each group scheduled for on-site work only twice per week. When working at the farm, students joined Bartram's Garden staff in adhering to strict COVID19 safety protocols, including masking, social distancing, and frequent hand washing or sanitizing. Support from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture allowed for much-needed improvements to the farm's harvest processing station, including new stainless steel processing counters that students could sanitize after each use to ensure safe handling of all produce. Even with fewer days onsite at Sankofa Community Farm, students were still farming all summer, thanks to new raised bed gardens and container gardens they tended at home. In Spring 2020, the home garden program became a vessel for establishing home gardens for all 24 farm interns, with the support and permission of their families. Just as at the farm, students were responsible for all aspects of their garden's evolution, from choosing crops to raising seedlings to lots and lots of weeding to the final, triumphant harvests. Students tracked their gardens' progress in their farm journals and shared their findings and frustrations within the cohort via regular Google Meet calls. Each Friday, students gathered for the next phase after a successful harvest: cooking! Using a kit of basic kitchen tools as well as weekly installments of fresh ingredients collected from the farm, students convened over Zoom for a real-time cooking lesson, sharing their creations with family and offering tweaks on recipes and techniques. Deepening the summer's focus on food and cooking as expressions of the African Diaspora, students also read Notes from a Young Black Chef, a memoir by Kwame Onwuachi, who won the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A professional evaluation team from the University of Pennsylvania continued their assessment of this program, leading focus groups and conducting pre- and post-participation surveys with each of the three defined audience tiers. The team shared their findings with the entire SWWAG network in Fall 2020; recommendations and themes from the evaluation report will guide program refinements in Winter 2021. Reflecting the season's newly virtual focus, communications and online resources proved an especially dominant theme within the year's feedback and evaluation. In an effort to strengthen this aspect of the program, in Summer 2020 several returning students also joined a documentation team, working with the Garden's marketing manager to develop blog entries and Instagram posts. A deeper partnership with WURD Radio, Philadelphia's only Black-owned radio station, also included an environmental justice summit in October 2019 as well as several radio episodes dedicated to urban farming and African Diaspora foodways in Spring 2020. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We look forward to Winter 2021 as an opportunity for reflection and recalibration following the extraordinary resilience, flexibility, and innovation that was required for much of 2020. As of this writing in November 2020, with the city of Philadelphia entering another dangerous phase for the COVID19 pandemic, we recognize that future plans towards these goals will continue requiring significant flexibility, especially those contingent on in-person gatherings, connection to peer networks, or access to commercial spaces. Forthcoming SWWAG retreats will offer opportunities to consider how best to continue safely fulfilling the goals of this project in line with the city's evolving public health guidance.?
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As with all programming throughout Bartram's Garden, the onset of the COVID19 pandemic in Spring 2020 required significant adjustments in how this project was implemented to ensure safety for all participants. Given the essential nature of the farm's ongoing food production, along with the importance of continued care and maintenance for the Garden's priceless living collections and 50-acre public recreational space, the John Bartram Association received a state waiver to permit continued on-site work for a limited number of essential employees despite the statewide shelter-in-place order. Accomplishments during this reporting period include the following: Increase production and consumption of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables in Southwest Philadelphia The SWWAG (Southwest and West Area Growers) Network urban farm collaborative continued expanded and formalizing. The Sankofa Community Farm and Urban Tree Connection assumed key leadership roles within the network, after Mill Creek Farm stepped back from participation owing to significant staff departures within their own organization. Additional core leadership emerged from the Philadelphia Orchard Project, which maintains multiple community orchards within the target neighborhood, and from the Garden at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Karabots Pediatric Care Center. In addition to regular in-person and Zoom meetings between SWWAG's core leadership team, the collaborative held an in-person retreat in Winter 2020 with a wider network of participants, including representatives from local schools with gardening programs, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, The Enterprise, and the Philadelphia International Airport. The collaborative developed a vision statement and identified opportunities for broadening the network of participation. Bartram's Garden also joined the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Harvest2020 initiative, intended to amplify and support regional efforts to grow and share fresh food. With support from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, SWWAG developed a tool library for use by participating farms. Available tools include both large numbers of simple tools, like shovels, hoes, loppers, and rakes, for use with large groups as during volunteer work days, as well as specialized tools like circular saws for constructing raised bed gardens. After a successful completion of their 2019 season in Fall 2019, the new youth outreach team were hired in February 2020--and then were promptly barred from supporting spring plantings and preparations owing to the statewide stay-at-home order. New safety protocols allowed for small numbers of socially distanced, masked students to work onsite beginning in Summer 2020, but the majority of the outreach team's work shifted to an online focus, including continued advertising and advocacy related to the home garden bed program. All students, including both the outreach team and first-year students, were retained and paid in full for the 2020 season. Foster and strengthen a local and interdependent network of growers, producers, and advocates SWWAG hosted 7 free workshops on subjects including food preservation, seedkeeping, biochar, planting techniques, and natural medicine. In Spring and Summer 2020, three workshops were held online via Zoom. The Sankofa Community Farm community gardeners held an additional three outdoor workshops, at which all participants wore masks and socially distanced. Weekly free cooking demonstrations were held at the neighborhood farmstand, using produce from each week's harvest. As of this writing in November 2020, 54 new home garden beds have been installed for neighbors in Southwest Philadelphia. More than 100 applications were received thus far this year. In partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, more than 5,000 seedling transplants were propagated for distribution to more than 130 local community gardens in addition to those used by the Sankofa Community Farm's community gardeners and in the new home garden beds. Initial recipe development began for a Sankofa Community Farm hot sauce, with production planned for Winter 2021, assuming that public health conditions permit commercial kitchen rental. The Sankofa Community Farm expanded its harvest to include mushrooms, grown in partnership with Mycopolitan Mushroom Company: after Mycopolitan exhausts the commercial yield of its mushroom blocks, the blocks are relocated to the farm, where they continue to produce mushrooms like lion's mane, shiitake, and pioppino in smaller quantities. Build awareness of neighborhood-centered urban agriculture and to facilitate its expansion Unfortunately, owing to the impacts of the pandemic, youth networking opportunities were severely limited this year, as most peer programs were canceled this season. We hope to resume youth community-building and skill-sharing opportunities in Spring 2021. Community foodways sharing has also evolved this season. New partnerships focused on emergency food distribution emerged with Philabundance and the People's Fridge; the farm also developed a wholesale partnership with a local Jamaican grocery, including time to meet with shoppers and discuss foodways.
Publications
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Progress 08/15/18 to 08/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Built on land reclaimed from an underused baseball diamond, the four-acre Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden now stands tall and lush, bursting with hearty fruits and vegetables ready to be eaten and shared amongst family, friends, and community. Support from the Community Food Project allowed the farm to reach an estimated 8,500 Southwest Philadelphia neighbors in ever-deepening modes of engagement, from casual farmstand shoppers and student visits to regular workshop attendees to paid high school interns. This season's harvest produced 16,000 pounds of chemical-free produce, serving an estimated 500 local families through neighborhood farm stands and 40 local farmers markets. A diverse range of crops relevant to Southwest Philadelphia's predominantly African American and Black communities included black-eyed peas, sorghum, okra, fish peppers, and callaloo. To promote self-reliance and food sovereignty, the farm offered a robust community gardening program which during this period served 60 local families and included 11 free workshops in partnership with two nearby farm sites on maintaining a garden, pest control, seed saving, harvesting, and more. This season, thefarm employed 25 youth interns from the immediate Southwest Philadelphia community who received training and leadership development focused on urban agriculture and food sovereignty. These paid interns studied all aspects of urban farming in addition to honing broader skills like mentorship, community organizing, networking, and intergenerational, cross-cultural community-building. Interns also managed cooking workshops, farmstand sales, and gardening support for local families, allowing them to share their knowledge and assert creativity and expertise with peers. A team of six returning students, deemed the Legacy Crew, led the interns to develop an at-home garden bed program to promote gardening for neighbors who chose not to maintain a community bed at the Sankofa Community Farm. Students designed advertising materials for the program, built a home gardener survey to gauge interest, and canvassed door-to-door to promote home gardening. During this reporting period, students built and planted 15 new home garden beds, with an additional five households slated for beds in the coming months and more than 40 residents on a waiting list for next season. In addition, the farm helpedsustainmore than 150 local urban farms and community gardens,which received seedlings and transplants from our greenhouse, and welcomed more than 1,500 volunteers to help make our space safe and accessible for all. Sitewide educational programming at Bartram's Garden brought in an additional 6,500 schoolchildren, including 3,731 students from Southwest Philadelphia who attended for free. Changes/Problems:Due to challanges with capactity, the Home Garden Program currently maintains a waitlist of nearly 40 neighbors owing to the program's intense and immediate success upon its launch in Spring 2019. In order to best serve these neighbors and ensure we meet garden bed installation goals of 20 garden beds per season, the youth outreach team plans to build and stockpile community garden beds during the winter months for easier installation during the spring. Bartram's Garden has also decided to purchase a designated farm truck, which will help ensure a more streamlined process for installing garden beds in Spring 2020. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The youth outreach team, or Legacy Crew, was established at the outset of this reporting period and began with three months of training and professional development to prepare students to launch the home gardening program in Spring 2019. Training topics included canvassing, evaluation, graphic design, public speaking, basic carpentry, and safety lessons for operating power tools. Students were taught the skills to provide technical assistance to new home gardeners as needed. They also led the monthly free workshop series, passing on their urban agriculture and gardening knowledge to community members new to gardening while also practicing presentation skills. The Legacy Crewworked with several professionals in various fields throughout their training, including professional evaluators from the University of Pennsylvania, local canvass organizers, and the marketing manager at Bartram's Garden. Participating youth also attended conferences including the Black Urban Gardeners Conference, the Duke World Food Policy gathering, the Mid-Atlantic Library Conference, and the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment conference. The Sankofa Community Farm's existing partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia was also strengthened this season, with the formalization of a farm fellow position for farm alumni who are eligible for work-study employment while enrolled at CCP. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A professional evaluation team from the University of Pennsylvania has led focus groups and collected data from participants throughout this reporting period, exploring both the utility of existing programming and local priorities for deeper engagement. The team shared their findings with the entire SWWAG network during in Fall 2019. The network worked together to process the results and learn from the quantitative feedback given by participants. These results and findings will also be shared at an upcoming community meeting that will be hosted at Bartram's Garden. Evaluators and the SWWAG network intend to continue a dialogue with community members by sharing this data and discussing potential changes to ensure the network and partners are best serving the immediate community and meeting their needs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A second SWWAG retreat is planned for Winter 2020 to plan and discuss the workshop series, citywide youth council recruitment, and the regional youth summit. Winter 2020 will also mark a period of major investment in the youth-led home garden program, which maintains a waitlist of nearly 40 neighbors owing to the program's intense and immediate success upon its launch in Spring 2019. In order to best serve these neighbors and ensure we meet garden bed installation goals, the youth outreach team plans to build and stockpile community garden beds during the winter months for easier installation during the spring. Bartram's Garden has also decided to purchase a designated farm truck, which will help ensure a more streamlined process for installing garden beds in Spring 2020.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Increase production and consumption of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables in Southwest Philadelphia Accomplishments: During this first reporting period, the SWWAG (Southwest and West Agriculture) urban farm collaboration has worked towards expansion and formalization. Throughout the season the SWWAG network, which includes ten local nonprofits that support Southwest and West Philadelphia agriculture, met quarterly, and the SWWAG farm partners, which includes Urban Tree Connection, Mill Creek Farm, and the Sankofa Community Farm, met monthly. (Unfortunately, owing to the passing of a key leader, Earth's Keepers was unable to participate fully as a SWWAG farm partner.) The SWWAG partners facilitated a day-long retreat at Bartram's Garden in Winter 2019, where they held a visioning session, developed the spring workshop series, discussed resource sharing, and solidified annual goals and operating principals. Stemming from retreat goals, the SWWAG network also created a 2019 Farmers' Market Map flyer that included locations, times, and details about each farm and farmstand. Maps were distributed throughout the neighborhood, at events, and at SWWAG partner locations. In an effort to expand the network, farm interns helped organize the Youth Growers Market in Rittenhouse Square, where 10 Philadelphia-based farms were able to connect and sell produce together. A new outreach team, deemed the Legacy Crew, of six high school interns was established this season at the Sankofa Community Farm. In addition to the collaboration-wide leadership of the Youth Growers Market, the Legacy Crew explored new ways to connect local neighbors with community agriculture. They led a community feedback session at Bartram's Garden, developed and implemented the Home Gardening Program, and led cooking workshops at local schools including Woodland Academy, Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School, and Camp Sojourner. The Legacy Crew also facilitated outreaches at local farmers markets in Clark Park and on Lindbergh Boulevard twice weekly throughout the summer months. The new student outreach team, or Legacy Crew, led more than 10 culturally relevant cooking workshops this year within the Southwest Philadelphia community. The Legacy Crew facilitated weekly cooking demonstrations at summer farmstands and led cooking lessons at Bartram's Garden throughout the winter. Winter cooking lessons were also taught to local students from Tilden Middle School and Camp Sojourner, with 15-20 students at each lesson. Demonstrations and lessons were all rooted in the African Heritage diet pyramid. During this initial reporting period, the student outreach team designed, developed, and implemented a new home gardening program. Together, the team formed a marketing plan for the program, created flyers, and designed a home gardener survey to gauge interest. Students canvassed door-to-door to promote the program and posted flyers at bus stops, in local shops, and around the immediate neighborhood. As of this writing, students have built and planted 15 new home garden beds in the immediate community, with an additional five household slated for beds in the coming months. Families who received home garden beds were invited to attend free monthly workshops that covered the basics of gardening, seed saving, pest control, and harvesting. 5,000 seedling transplants were propagated this year in the farm's greenhouses and were distributed to farm partners, community gardeners, and to families in the new home garden program. The collaborative workshop series was held at various partner locations throughout West and Southwest Philadelphia, including at the Sankofa Community Farm, Mill Creek Farm, and the Urban Tree Network. With eleven workshops in total, each session brought in 10-15 unique participants, totaling approximately 100 non-duplicated growers who self-reported that they will implement best practices learned through the workshop series. Best practices included topics about "making your garden bed," seed starting, planning summer crops, maintaining a garden, and organic composting. Summer 2019 marked the launch of youth-led commercial production of value-added food items to increase the diversity of local food items, to build entrepreneurial skills, and to create financial and brand support for the farm collaborative. The first initiative in the commercial production plan is a SWWAG partner hot sauce. Participating farms harvested peppers over the summer, leaving them to soak over the winter months. Next season, youth interns will work alongside chefs in a commercial kitchen to prepare and package the hot sauce and assist with label design, pricing, promotional materials, and an overall marketing plan. Students have envisioned the future of these commercial products to include lines of jams, jellies, and dried herbs all made using locally harvested produce from SWWAG partners. Foster and strengthen a local and interdependent network of growers, producers, and advocates Accomplishments: In July 2019, SWWAG students organized and participated in the Youth Growers Market in downtown Philadelphia alongside ten Philadelphia-based farms, allowing them to connect with other local youth. Deepening these connections, the Sankofa Community Farm will host their first youth council meetings at Bartram's Garden with the goal of hosting at least 20 participants. An outreach plan for the council is currently underway. SWWAG partners and students have begun planning for a regional summit and skillshare opportunity at Bartram's Garden to be held in 2020. With an outreach plan in the works, the goal is to reach 50 regional youth, including high school students and program alumni working throughout the greater Philadelphia region. Bartram's Garden welcomed 2,000 visitors at three annual community festivals this year with more than five instances of foodways sharing highlighted. Programming at all three events included an array of food sharing topics, including discussions about the farm's beehives and honey, open-hive demonstrations, cooking lessons using the African food pyramid and fresh produce from the Sankofa Community Farm, healthy eating samples that included popcorn seasoned with herbs instead of salt to reduce sodium intake, tours of the Sankofa Community Farm including the orchard and community gardens, and community and youth-led discussions about African American cultural foods and cultural seed saving. Print materials were also distributed that included information about local farmers' markets, how to get involved with the on-site community gardening program, upcoming topics and dates for the free monthly workshop series, and how to apply for the home garden program. Build awareness of neighborhood-centered urban agriculture and to facilitate its expansion Accomplishments: The youth outreach team facilitated more than 10 presentations about food resources local community gathering sites like schools, public libraries, recreation centers, and senior centers. Specific sites included Finnigan Community Center, Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School, Tilden Middle School, and Francis Myers Recreation Center. These outreaches included cooking lessons using the African food pyramid, demonstrations of kitchen skills, and discussions about healthy eating. The youth outreach team also distributed SWWAG Farmers' Market Maps, which include dates and times of local markets in West and Southwest Philadelphia.
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