Reflections from our Summer 2020/2021 Interns

Kate ecstatic over the amazing brassica crops we grew over summer

Kate Martin (Intern Dec 2020 to June 2021)

I signed up for the Helping Hands for Hannah, Urban Kai internship in December 2020 with an emphasis on farm management. I was hungry to learn more about urban agriculture and to help in any way I could. The internship truly provided an immersive experience with all aspects of the farm - from raising seedlings, growing a diversity of crops, harvesting, compost and building soils. I enjoy learning hands-on and this is it. What I wasn't expecting was the incredible community connections that I got to build as well. Good food brings people together and I'm grateful to be a part of that.

Katie Newman (Intern Dec 2020 to June 2021)

Katie tending to the tomato crop in the ‘tomato tent’

Last summer was an exciting time - I joined a group of like-minded garden interns working on a great urban kai farm, with some fantastic mentors. I focused on the school learning sessions and Agrihood program, with a particular focus on developing lesson plans.

Common Unity embraced us into a culture of skill building and practical horticultural expertise. We became part of an intergenerational knowledge sharing and learning network.

This year we were lucky to step into jobs within the urban kai program. I will always be grateful for the experience and friendships I made through the internship.

Elise Ranck (Intern Dec 2020 to still going strong)

Elise under our favourite Plum tree at Riverside

I jumped on board Hannah's Helping Hands/Urban Kai team eager to learn as much as possible about developing a community based model of growing and sharing locally grown kai. The joy of learning came through working alongside my fellow farmers as we swapped knowledge and skills from our own backgrounds, took risks in trialing various experimental projects, and kept a constant flow of interesting banter. Common Unity remains a beautiful growth space to acquire handy skills, useful and fascinating horticultural knowledge; and for deepening connection with Te Awa Kairangi, friendships with my teammates and wider community, oh and some very scrumptious looking veges :)