Intro

0:03[Music]

0:06hi i'm kamal bell we're at sankova farms

0:08in cedar grove north carolina it's a 12

0:10acre property and right now we have four

0:13capital tunnels and 36 beehives

0:17[Music]

0:19the name sankofa it means to remember

0:20your african ancestry as you move

0:22forward in life i stand on someone's

0:24shoulders like other people laid the

0:25platform for me to be here and i always

0:28want to pay reverence to those people

0:30into my heritage as you move forward

0:32with this farm

0:41so before i started farming i was

0:43actually

0:44a school teacher when i started looking

0:46for a farm i was looking at my savings

0:49life if i do this i won't have any money

0:51to operate the farm so i literally was

0:53teaching and acquiring the farm all at

0:55the same time i decided to merge my

0:57passion for teaching in agriculture and

1:00that's how we got sancofa farms

1:02[Music]

1:05the students come out here in the summer

1:08at least three times a week i'll pick up

1:10the students i'll have a route through

1:12durham it'll take me about 15 minutes to

1:15an hour to pick them all up and then

1:17i'll transport them to the farm and then

1:18drop them back off at the end of the day

1:22everything that i do they do as well on

1:24the farm so they're going to be very

1:26very skilled and prepared to tackle

1:28issues in a different way that i feel

1:31like i've been able to tackle within our

1:33community

1:35[Music]

Farming

1:40if we don't know how to do anything on

1:42this farm we know what sankofa means and

1:44we don't have about a capital tunnel

1:47so the students can really build the

1:48tunnels by themselves

1:50one of them is really good at getting

1:51the string going like i'm terrible at it

1:53he's really good

1:55the cowboy tongues are like

1:57i love them you don't have to be the

1:59most experienced person with the crops

2:01for them to actually help you

2:03they've been able to give us that

2:05infrastructure that we needed without

2:07burning our pockets

2:08it makes farming not as labor-intensive

2:11as it can be

2:13i think we're just scratching the

2:14surface to see what the capital tones

2:15can be used for

2:16[Music]

2:19we got into beekeeping in 2017 i was

2:22terrified at the time

2:24we ended up going from

2:26six colonies

2:27to 36 here on site

Beekeeping

2:31four out of the five students are

2:32certified beekeepers so the students

2:35will expect beehives we extract honey

2:38the bees they keep us accountable they

2:40also have a really deep history with

2:42african americans and people of african

2:44descent they also have a lot of

2:46transferable life skills that we see and

2:48i think they're a good introduction to

2:51agriculture and they also help generate

2:53revenue for the farm

Community Support

2:55[Music]

2:57we take orders on our website and they

2:58meet people so they can put up their

3:00order

3:01we also work with our communities and

3:03partnership in durham where people can

3:04come from the community and get food

3:07we try to make sure we work with

3:09organizations who have like a community

3:10focus to get our food to the community

The Farm is a Foundation

3:14african americans are disproportionately

3:16affected by

3:17all these different things across the

3:19board and and eating healthy was the

3:22thing that i felt like

3:23i could contribute and help my people

3:26someone can come in they can work around

3:27the farm they can get these skills that

3:30can be transferable when they leave the

3:32farm and they go into society because

3:34the farm is a foundation for everything

3:35we do whether it's crops whether it's

3:37bees it's a foundation so the closer we

3:39are to the roots the more we still have

3:41that understanding

3:42[Music]

Why I Farm

3:44one thing you'll hear me say i don't

3:46fart for money

3:47i don't mind helping people because as i

3:49mentioned our story they've been people

3:50who come in and helped us for free it

3:52doesn't cost anything to help anybody

3:54that's why i farm it's my means to help

3:56other people and that's what we're here

3:57for we're here to help other people

Dont be discouraged

4:01it's easy to get discouraged in this

4:02process where you get on the internet

4:04and you see like a perfect farm

4:06they don't start out like that like i

4:08hope through our store you can see that

4:11you don't have to have a perfect farm

4:12you can make the mistakes and

4:15it's okay like you're going to get it

4:16you're going to get eventually this is

4:18repetition

4:20get a california tunnel get one work it

4:22learn your system on your land and then

4:25get more and expand your operation

Whats next

4:29one of the goals is

4:31whatever we find out works in this space

4:34we're going to duplicate it on other

4:35parts of the farm

4:36and people can transition into farming

4:39here at sand culver and really african

4:40americans because we don't have the

4:41space like that

4:44the end goal for the academy is a school

4:46so we want to actually have structures

4:47out here that support education for

4:49african american youth in agriculture

4:53i think what i love most about farming

4:55is that it brings people together

4:57i wouldn't be able to work with the

4:59students in the capacity and watch them

5:00grow i wouldn't be able to feel

5:02comfortable that my kids even have

5:04something that they can clean going to

5:06at the end of the day

5:10they love the farm on the compost pile

5:12and running through here looking for

5:14grasshoppers they're full of life

5:18they love it out

5:22here it's been able to build community

5:25that's what i love most about farming

5:32hi guys i'm jonathan with farmer's

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5:37inspiring stories like this to learn

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5:45more check out our website at

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