Sankofa Community Farm springs to life
Adhering to a set of formalized safety procedures – work and social distancing, face covering, hand washing, and the like – the Sankofa farm teams have been working tirelessly since the beginning of April. Plantings so far include such nutritious vegetables as collard, kale, bok choy, beets, carrots, onions, lettuce, fava beans, and spinach. Much of this produce is intended for distribution to 500 local families.
The intern groups under the direction of Chris Bolden-Newsome and Ty Holmberg and have already hosted ten workshops for community gardeners who will be planting vegetables and flowers in the raised beds they have reserved at the farm at 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.
Another special feature this year will be to build and install raised garden beds in the yards of Southwest and West Philadelphia residents ( through a safe no-contact process). Applications for both the small 3 x 5 foot ($25) and large 4 x 8 foot ($40) boxes can be made online at the website:
www.bartramsgarden.org or by phoning 215-729-5281 or emailing farm@bartramsgarden.org.
A number of interns have graduated from high school and have been accepted at Howard and Temple Universities. Meetings have been held with this summer’s youth program partners to develop plans for both virtual and self-driven initiatives.
Information for this article was provided by Bartram’s Garden Marketing & Communications Manager LJ Brubaker.
