The past few weeks have been a whirlwind! I’m finally getting back on track with my research. My apprenticeship at Harlem Grown ended last week, and it was truly such an amazing experience. I was working full-time with the agriculture team, learned so much about growing, and had a fantastic time. I was also able to interact with the surrounding community daily and during bi-weekly farm stands put on by Harlem Grown. Overall, there was a ton of work!! Lots of manual labor and learning everything that goes into farming, from hydroponics to chicken feed. Apprenticing with the agriculture team was truly a gift, and I was able to get some great photos of everyone I worked with! While I worked at Harlem Grown, I was also able to survey and learn about how the non-profit functions as a whole and its influence on the community of Central Harlem.
My days were super full, but I tried my best to keep up with my scheduled research during my off days and my commute. One of the sources I’ve found valuable is Feeding the Other by Rebecca de Souza. The author discusses the contradictions of organizing food access programs in a society prioritizing institutional and capital gain. Soup kitchens, government assistance, and food pantries have become a necessity in the current food system. While these organizations and programs are doing “good work” by sustaining individuals who face food insecurity, many critics question whether this is the right approach. Food programs have become an industry in and of themselves, creating organizational contradictions between profit and purpose. Critics believe that more holistic and rights-based approaches would be longer lasting and more effective, severing the dependency on private organizations and sometimes illusive government assistance.
These are the contradictions I hope to investigate further during the last few weeks of this research project! For example, while working at Harlem Grown, I saw daily the reality of what is required to sustain a non-profit organization and the politics that go hand in hand with it. Corporate sponsorship is one of the main sources by which Harlem Grown sustains its programming. Seeing this relationship via the weekly corporate volunteer days was eye-opening. Parsing out the different opinions and the overwhelming amount of literature on these subjects has been a lot of work. Still, I’m looking forward to continuing to investigate and question these issues and simplify my arguments as I draft.
