Umoja Community Builders Summer Internship

For the summer of Community Builders 2009 we are focusing and researching the topic of food justice. We discussed the topic of food justice, and the problem of food deserts. When we say food justice we mean each community having the same access to food. When we say food desert we are referring to a lack of grocery stores in a specific area. While researching we noticed that North Lawndale is suffering from a food desert because of a lack of grocery stores in the area. Us thirty- five teenagers decided to find a solution to this problem. In the course of the second week we visited an organization called Green Youth Farm, where other teens learn how to grow organic foods. After researching we have created several questions to produce a survey, which we passed out to the community later on that week. Once during every week, we attend Free Spirit Media to gain knowledge of the process of making a documentary. When we are there we learn to edit footage, produce a soundtrack, and generate texts. What both Community Builders and Green Youth Farm are doing is only two parts to the solution. The last part requires the assistance of the residents in the North Lawndale community to take action.

By: Shanobia Davis and Jasmine Coleman


Thursday, July 30, 2009

A Day with Mikva, by Shanobia Davis


During my internship at Community Builders we met up with another community organization by the name of Mikva. For an icebreaker both Community Builders and Mikva grouped up together to complete an activity. Our activity was to use marshmallows and toothpicks to make the tallest and sturdiest building. Then they split us up into groups. But before we could start the activity we had to answer a few questions about what our organization is trying to accomplish this summer. Mikva was working on trying to change the structure and values of the Chicago Public School system, and we were trying to make people aware of the food desert that is in our community. We exchanged information about our research, we filled out each others surveys, and we explained to each other the importance of what we were trying to accomplish this summer.
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