With funding from the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, they are working for Weavers Way Community Programs, gardening at an urban farm and teachinig agriculture education to young people.
Weavers Way began as a simple Mt. Airy cooperative grocery store in 1973, but has since grown to include multiple market locations and a nonprofit arm that specializes in community outreach and educational programs that espouse urban agriculture, nutrition, and the values of a cooperative economy. For their internships, Love and Riddle are splitting their time between gardening at a small-scale urban farm in Northeast Philadelphia and teaching agriculture education.
“We mostly grow vegetables, so a lot of work—weeding, hoeing, putting up trellises, and pruning the plants—goes into maintaining the crops,” says Love.“We also harvest and sell produce at a market on Tuesdays.”
In their educational roles, the women work with young children at the Stenton Family Manor, a transitional family housing shelter connected to one of the farms, and teens, through programs at MLK High School and the Saul Agricultural High School.
“What really sets WWCP apart from other urban farming initiatives is an acknowledgment, both in policy and in practice, that food sustainability issues disproportionately affect poor communities,” says Riddle.“All lessons—as well as the nature of the programs themselves—are made with consideration for the privilege often necessary to make healthy decisions.”
Both Love and Riddle feel that this internship is a natural extension of their Haverford educations. Love, who is a member of both the HaverFarm and ETHOS, campus' food justice initiative, credits Associate Professor Craig Borowiak's political science course “The Politics of Globalization” with teaching her how local actions can have much larger effects on the planet.
For Riddle, a pre-internship CPGC retreat highlighted a number of issues that have been important for her at Weavers Way, such as how to help disenfranchised communities. “An outsider, savior complex can sometimes compromise the good intentions of a program,” she says. "In order to combat that, I recognize that I must first learn how my role as an educator can most effectively empower students to help themselves or their peers."
But above all, Love's favorite part of the internship has been the people she has been able to meet. “Everyone we are working with is extremely passionate and invested in the work they do on a daily basis,” she says.“It is inspiring to be surrounded by their constant energy.”
—Jack Hasler '15
"Summer Centered" is a series exploring our students' Center-funded summer work.
