IAA Internship Stories: Salvador Fawkes

Fawkes gleefully posing with cucumbers from the Community Learning Garden.

Image Credit: Meredith Epstein

October 17, 2017

On a college campus where there is no shortage of brick buildings, concrete roads, and busy passersby, one small patch of lush color and greenery, tucked between two buildings, serves as not only a haven, but a provider of natural beauty, education, and food. This unique place, known as the UMD Community Learning Garden, was established in 2012 to serve as a green space for students, and a place to facilitate gardening education, hence the name. Today, the garden is still student-run, and last summer it served as an internship site for Salvador Fawkes.

Fawkes, a Silver Spring native, came to the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) one year ago as a student of the Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA). He is currently studying Sustainable Agriculture, and hopes to pursue a career in sustainable farming. His position as manager of the Community Learning Garden allowed him to focus on sustainable crop production. The garden itself, a non-profit, operates organically and is also a source of food for the students who volunteer to work in the garden.

To boost its social outreach, the garden began donating to UMD’s Campus Pantry, a food bank for students, staff, and faculty struggling to make ends meet. This past summer Fawkes delivered and distributed the harvested goods to the pantry, which is conveniently located in the Health Center on campus. “It’s rewarding to know that the food I planted and harvested is going to people who appreciate having fresh produce, and since it’s all local there is minimum food waste,” stated Fawkes.

Fawkes also oversaw the crop rotation of the garden, and aided his supervisor, Meredith Epstein, in planning. Furthermore, his daily activities included anything from weeding and watering, to harvesting and enjoying the spoils of his hard work. One of the most valuable things that Fawkes said he learned through this experience was how to properly and safely handle food for consumption. His favorite aspects of the job were being outside, working with the community, and being with his supervisor. In turn, Epstein had this to say about her experience working with Fawkes, “As the first-ever Campus Food Garden Intern, Salvador made possible a number of things that we had been talking about for years - including donating to the Campus Pantry and building a community between the different food garden clubs on campus. His networking skills were highly valuable, and he gained new skills as a garden manager.”

On the whole, Fawkes highly valued his summer working at the garden, so much so, that he is continuing his position as student head throughout the school year. With the knowledge he has gained from working at the garden, he hopes to keep growing food and expand his social outreach mission of ensuring that the people around him always have something healthy and delicious to eat.