Umoja Community Builders 2009: Jasmine's Story (from Image Writing Activity)

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jasmine's Story (from Image Writing Activity)

Image was found at www.images.google.com

I am a volunteer at the food pantry. I see many homeless people sitting and waiting inline for our groceries. They come from many different neighborhoods just to get our groceries. The people hear about it from other people in the communities. We get many people here because our marketing strategy is FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE. The people need the food and they will travel far to get it. People are not well off they need our food and we are happy to supply it. In a way we are all connected to food. We need it to survive, it has to be close so people can easily obtain it, and we need money to buy it. The work I do is very beneficial for me and them. I am learning to help people out by providing them with groceries and they are really happy about it.