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Cafe Sankofa Cooperative is not a traditional cafe. While it does sell items like smoothies and coffee, its main focus is holistic health and wellness. CSC board president and Syracuse University alumna Arlaina Harris brings health and wellness education and resources to Syracuse’s Southside community.

“Health and wellness is our bread and butter, it’s our mission,” Harris said. “We are trying to be a wellness cooperative by addressing food insecurity, and addressing accessible and culturally competent care.”

The cooperative’s latest endeavor was a community cleanup to celebrate Earth Day. The event was held on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the cafe’s garden. Volunteers cleaned up trash and prepared the garden for planting. By 11:45 a.m, volunteers had picked up 10 trash bags worth of litter.

“Collectively individuals come together, and that’s how impact happens,” Harris said. “Overall, we have to move from intention to impact and ensure that we are doing our part to make everyone feel safe and welcome and give everyone access to the same opportunities and services. Everyone deserves that.”

Among the volunteers were sisters Johnelle and Jhonna Burgos. Johnelle, who is 7 years old, said she wanted to pick up trash to help animals.

“I don’t want nature to be dirty, because it will kill animals and I don’t want them to die,” she said.

Johnelle said she wants to live on a clean earth and often thinks about ways to secure a green future. She said that when she’s an adult, she plans to help the environment in bigger ways, like going to the beach to clean up and picking up trash all around the world.

A big thank you from the Cafe a Sankofa Board to every who came out and helped with the Earth Day :earth_americas: clean up. #earthday #syracuse #syracusecommunity #communitygarden

A photo posted by
cafesankofacoop

Jhonna is also passionate about reducing litter and helping animals. She said she wishes that people didn’t litter in the first place.

“They should put trash in the trash can, because I have to clean it if they don’t clean up by themselves,” Jhonna said.

Tracy Hogarth, who graduated from SUNY-ESF, said she wanted to celebrate Earth Day with a cleanup. As CSC’s program chair, she came up with the idea and shared it to the community via Instagram.

Hogarth said she wants to help citizens of Syracuse grow their own food and become more in tune with the earth. Cleaning up the garden will allow community members access to fresh, locally grown food. The area around Cafe Sankofa is a food desert, and to combat this issue, she creates health- and wellness-related activities with the help of the organization’s board to combat the unreliable access to fresh produce, she said.

Her goal, she said, is to educate the Southside on the food options it has and let the community know that growing its own food is a sustainable and cheaper way to access produce.

Everett Fonger, who is 10 years old, attended the cleanup to help his community. He recycles at home and cleans up his local park with family friends. Fonger’s interest in helping the environment is reinforced by his fourth grade science class.

“At school, I learn about how humans affect the ecosystem,” he said. When asked about climate change, Everett said that “unless we do something about it, this is just going to be very bad.”

His mother, Nicole Fonger, is an assistant professor at SU and active member of the community. Since moving to Syracuse, she has become involved with Cafe Sankofa and other community organizations.

“I believe in community gardens, community organizations, community centers, showing up to support communities, building relationships with people,” she said.

Nicole also said it’s important to have her kids with her at community events so she can demonstrate leadership and lead by example. She likes being a part of a community that shares her values, and the beautification of surrounding areas has offered her a sense of pride since moving to Syracuse, she said.

“It’s important to have pride in where you live, and the more connected we become to Syracuse, the more people we meet who are really invested in the community and we like to be a part of that,” she said.

Published on April 24, 2022 at 10:13 pm