Monday, July 16, 2012 marked the start of the second week of the Oakland Freedom Summer Project (OFSP). The morning began bright and early with a healthy breakfast, followed by two hours of continued work in the Uhuru House Community Garden.
Comrades shared in the responsibilities of clearing and bagging brush, removing unwanted weeds from the garden beds and finally watering the existing plants as well as the newly planted seeds. We also were able to harvest some cucumber that would be used for dinner later that evening.
After gardening, OFSP activities included phone outreach, wherein parents in the community were contacted with a friendly reminder about the Biko Lumumba Free Lunch Program and also kindly encouraged to keep their commitment to volunteering in the OFSP.
The phone outreach was immediately followed with a two-hour "community drop," wherein just over 400 fliers were delivered to the front doors of the surrounding community inviting all to attend and to participate in the Black Community Convention to be held on July 28-29 at the Oakland Uhuru House.
While some comrades were executing the drops, other comrades were preparing to receive the beautiful community children who would attend the daily Biko Lumumba Free Lunch Program.
The Biko Lumumba Free Lunch Program has been a tremendous success thus far. Comrade Erica Sorrells has done an excellent job of engaging the children with arts and crafts projects as well as age appropriate life skills lessons.
The Biko Lumumba Free Lunch Program has also given the OFSP the great opportunity to introduce the purpose and work of the Uhuru House to the parents and guardians of the children in attendance. Many parents have shown their support by returning each day to volunteer with the program.
After taking some time to have lunch, comrades carried on with assigned tasks to forward the OFSP. Just after 7pm, we also welcomed more forces that arrived safely from San Diego, Ca. In all, it was a productive day, yet there is still work to be done! Uhuru!
