Volunteer and Internship Opportunities
Now recruiting summer interns! Scroll down to read all of our volunteer opportunities.
Internship Job Descriptions Summer 2011
About Global Gardens
Global Gardens Refugee Community Agriculture is an agricultural training program for refugees resettled in Boise, ID. We are a program of the Idaho Office for Refugees. We sponsor refugee agriculture projects at 8 locations in Boise and Eagle and provide garden or farm space for around 100 refugee families as well as training in horticultural production and marketing.
All of our gardens are on donated land and use organic farming methods. During the growing season, we sell produce at the Capital City Public Market, downtown on Saturday mornings, and other small markets as available. We have a CSA -- Community Supported Agriculture. We also sell to restaurants, including Bittercreek Alehouse, The Red Feather, Willy B’s, and others.
We sponsor 5 community gardens and 3 farm plots in Boise and Eagle where refugees are farming and gardening. Some of these are managed by partner organizations including religious congregations, neighborhood associations, and ethnic community associations. We currently sponsor 2 community farms which are managed by ethnic communities who work together on one large parcel of land, and are opening several sites this year with ½ acre plots for refugees wishing to start their own farm business.
More info about the program can be found at our website, www.idahorefugees.org/home/Global_Gardens
Our staff includes one full-time, year round manager and a seasonal assistant during the summer months. This year we hope to add several part-time interns to the team to work on specific projects as well as to assist as needed with the overall success of the project.
These positions will be unpaid, though interns may take home vegetables from the farm. The positions could be appropriate for a college student or could be arranged through Americorps to provide a small educational stipend after 300 hours of service. Several interns have worked with us through university programs that are able to fund summer internships of the students’ choosing.
Farm and Marketing Intern (2 positions)
Duties:
Assist refugee growers with production and harvest of organic vegetables.
Intern may assist with planting if able to start early enough in the season (May).
Provide supervision during harvest to ensure a high quality product, including harvesting produce at the correct stage of ripeness, and properly cleaning and packing produce for transport.
Participate in farm walks and visit at refugees’ fields to provide feedback to farmers and to assess availability of produce for market.
Demonstrate proper use of tools and assist with tool maintenance and signing out tools to farmers.
Supervise transportation and use of the large tiller.
Participate in hands on farm field days that will train farmers in topics including planting, weeding, harvesting, season extension, use of cover crops, use of tools, etc. Approximately once a month.
Construct and manage compost piles at community garden sites.
Help with general maintenance at community garden sites.
Transport compost (food scraps) from Boise Center on the Grove and other restaurants to the garden sites, as well as other compostable materials as needed.
Help plant fall cover crops at the end of the season.
Assist gardeners and community garden managers will fall cleanup and composting of garden waste.
Interns and staff will rotate duties of supervising farmer’s market, CSA pickup, and neighborhood farm stands. These may include:
Helping the farmers set up for the CSA pickup, greeting members, and supervising pickup.
Transport produce and supplies to farmers’ markets in Global Gardens truck.
Assist farmers with market setup, pricing, and answering questions from customers.
Train farmers in the use of the produce scale and per pound pricing.
Assist farmers with reimbursements for EBT and debit/credit purchases at market.
Understand the use of our EBT (food stamps) machine and assist farmers with food stamps transactions at CSA pickup and at neighborhood farm stands.
Assist with the design and distribution of marketing materials, flyers, signs, coupons, etc, related to our EBT access programs.
Assist refugees with bookkeeping procedures, tracking sales and income, and reporting to national donors.
Promote Global Gardens program through media outlets and local organizations.
Assist with restaurant accounts, deliveries and invoicing as needed.
Assist other interns and staff as assigned.
Qualifications:
Experience or coursework agriculture, gardening, soil management, marketing, bookkeeping, or communications.
Experience building compost piles or planting cover crops.
Interest in physical, outdoor work.
Experience working with international populations and English language learners.
Experience/interest in designing promotional materials.
Knowledge of local foods and agriculture.
Good customer service skills and ability to train others in these skills.
Availability for part time work, May – September. About 15 hours per week if completing 300 hour Americorps internship.
Availability on evenings and weekends.
Ability to work independently and be self-directed.
Reliable transportation.
Foreign language skills are a plus but not required, especially Swahili, French, Russian or Bosnian.
Available for part time work, April – September 2010. About 12 hours per week if completing 300 hour Americorps program. Schedule can be adjusted to meet your academic schedule.
Nutrition and Culinary Arts Intern (1 position)
Duties:
Organize and teach cooking classes for interested refugee farmers and gardeners.
Discuss with farmers ways they use farm produce, which things they don’t use, which things they use that Americans don’t typically eat, and what they’d like to learn.
Schedule the use of the kitchen at King of Glory Lutheran Church.
Purchase necessary ingredients and/or set aside produce from weekly harvests.
Work with community leaders to advertise cooking workshops and coordinate transportation for participants who may not drive.
Facilitate cooking workshops and group dinners.
Help organize potlucks and/or a fall harvest dinner for CSA members, farmers, and supporters.
Decide on recipes for use in the class that incorporate seasonal produce from the farms and ethnic or American recipes.
Educate farmers on the use and nutritional benefits of vegetables that might be new to them.
Research recipes and/or record ethnic recipes from our farmers to type up and distribute to our CSA members and customers.
Assist with publicizing our EBT access programs (food stamps) at farmers’ markets, our CSA, and neighborhood farm stands. Conduct outreach with interested community groups and design and distribute promotional materials.
Assist other interns and staff as assigned.
Qualifications:
Knowledge of cooking, nutrition, gardening and agriculture
Experience working with international populations and English language learners.
Good organizational skills.
Ability to work independently and be self-directed.
Reliable transportation.
Available for evening and weekend work.
Available part-time, May – September 2011. About 15 hours per week if completing Americorps internship.
Foreign language skills are a plus but not required, especially Swahili, French, Russian or Bosnian.
Horticulture Intern (March-May)
(Intended for CWI students needing to complete an internship on this schedule.)
Duties:
Assist with greenhouse work including seeding flats, transplanting, watering, and managing the heater.
Assist refugees with greenhouse work including seeding, coordinating a watering schedule, and checking on their progress.
Assist Somali Bantu farmers with the use of their unheated hoophouse, including using it to start cold season crops and to grow early spring greens.
Carry out spring maintenance of community gardens, which may include reassembling and testing the irrigation systems, shredding waste from last year’s plots, cleaning out areas that weren’t cleaned out last fall, building compost piles and moving compost, assisting gardeners with tilling, and helping refurbish common areas including picnic areas, pathways, and landscaped areas.
Coordinate and participate in weekend workdays with refugee gardeners and volunteers.
Help our partner organizations, mostly churches, maintain their community garden areas as requested, which may include helping purchase supplies, moving compost, coordinating donations of plants and seeds, and participating in work days as requested.
Advise on new community garden projects as requested.
Assist with the establishment of new farm sites. This may include helping install fencing, sheds, and a wash station, testing irrigation, measuring out plots, establishing a cover crop demonstration area, and assisting new farmers with early spring planting.
Help manage donations or purchase of plants and other materials.
Qualifications:
Knowledge of agriculture, gardening, soil fertility, greenhouse production, and irrigation systems and/or the desire to learn more about these things.
Coursework in horticulture, agriculture, soil science, natural resource management or ecology.
Experience doing greenhouse work and producing vegetable starts.
Experience working with international populations and English language learners.
Good organizational skills.
Ability to work independently and be self-directed.
Interest in physical, outdoor work.
Reliable transportation.
Foreign language skills are a plus but not required, especially Swahili, French, Russian or Bosnian.
How to apply for Internships:
Please send a letter of interest and your resume to Katie Painter, Refugee Agriculture Coordinator, at kpainter@idahorefugees.org. Please let me know which internship you are interested in. You can also contact me with any questions at this address.
Other volunteer opportunities:
Volunteer Farm Mentor
You will be paired with one of the farm families in the program and will primarily assist them with working on their farm and developing their business. While our farmers are often experienced and proficient in producing crops, they often lack English language, financial literacy, and cultural skills that allow them to be successful in American markets and keep track of other aspects of their business. We believe that assigning each one a volunteer to help them keep up with orders, income, and expenses, the farmers will receive the one-on-one attention they need to succeed as new business owners.
Your volunteer experience may vary depending on the needs of the specific family that you are assigned, but some of the roles might include:
- Helping to harvest on harvest days, usually Monday, Wednesday, or Friday evenings. This might entail assisting with quality control by helping the farmer pick produce when it’s ripe, and wash and bunch produce appropriately for market.
- Assisting at farmers’ markets, usually Saturday or Tuesday evening, by helping with setup and pricing, and answering questions from the farmer and customers.
- Helping farmers understand orders and harvest the correct things, fill out invoices and make deliveries to restaurants.
- Helping farmer keep track of income and expenses, and pay quarterly sales taxes.
- Helping the farmer with planting, weeding, irrigation, and other farm tasks as needed.
- Attending farm classes with the farmer if you wish, to be held in January – March 2011, and assisting him or her with farm planning.
We would like to you commit to spend one season with your farmer. We will accept applications until all farmers are paired with a mentor, and there is important farm planning work that you could help with in the winter months. Knowledge of farming or gardening and working with diverse cultures is helpful but not necessary. To enroll as a volunteer mentor, please contact Katie Painter at kpainter@idahorefugees.org or at 208-336-4222.
Volunteer Graphic Artist
Help us to develop posters and other printed materials to promote the EBT program at the Capital City Public Market. In 2010, the market began its EBT (food stamp) program, to ensure that EBT card users had access to the fresh, healthy foods at our farmer’s market. In addition to card access, EBT customers’ purchases are matched, dollar for dollar, up to $10, to double their purchasing power. Due to a lack of advertising and outreach, the program has been slow to start and we would like to do some outreach to additional audiences by the spring of 2011. This position would be great for a student or someone else looking for creative work.
Volunteer EBT Nutrition Outreach Specialist
Help us to distribute printed materials and talk to social services providers and other audiences to promote the EBT program at the Capital City Public Market. In 2010, the market began its EBT (food stamp) program, to ensure that EBT card users had access to the fresh, healthy foods at our farmer’s market. In addition to card access, EBT customers’ purchases are matched, dollar for dollar, up to $10, to double their purchasing power. Due to a lack of advertising and outreach, the program has been slow to start and we would like to do some outreach to additional audiences by the spring of 2011. This position would be great for a student or someone else looking for creative work.
Volunteer Accountant
Assist the Somali Bantu Zigua Community with the management of their USDA grant. This grant funds our neignborhood farm stand program, where farmers set up food stamp accessible farm stands their own neighborhoods. Their volunteer accountant recently retired and we need to replace him. Assist with basic bookkeeping, grant reporting, payroll, and taxes.
For more info on all positions,
Contact Katie Painter at kpainter@idahorefugees.org or at 208-336-4222.