Job description

Nonprofit Garden / Mini Farm near Asheville Seeks 2 Full Season Interns April 1st – October 31 2016. We are looking for highly motivated & committed interns to assist in the daily & ever changing needs of our nonprofit, community-building garden project. The Lord’s Acre is a nonprofit donation, educational and community-building garden and our goal is to address hunger by seeking ways of building community around gardening and food.

We are serious and hard-working, passionate about doing and improving our work, yet flexible and fun-loving and are looking for the same in our interns. In exchange for approximately 36 hours of weekly work growing and distributing food, we offer room and board, a $300 / month stipend, a quality education, field trips, community outreach and immersion in a wonderful small community near Asheville.

We have six acres of land with one acre under production. Write us for an internship description and/or application. You can learn more about our work, our philosophy, and our story here: www.thelordsacre.org and by checking us out on Facebook.

Duration of Internship: Interns agree to participate in the internship program from the time they arrive in late March - April 1st until October 31st. A 1- month trial period is part of the internship. Interns must provide a 2 week notice before terminating the internship. In addition, vacation time of a week or so is available during the growing season.

Work/Experience Desired: Since the intent of the internship is to pass along knowledge, we do not have specific experience requirements. All thing being equal, we may, however, give preference to those with a gardening background or those pursuing a career/lifestyle in the work we do.We are looking for applicants who are or can:

• highly motivated
• flexible and adaptable
• collaborative
• display gratitude
• follow directions while sharing their opinions
• independent workers
• in good physical condition
• have a sincere desire to learn about sustainable food production, hunger issues, and community building
• value quality work
• able to maintain a clean, safe and organized work space

Interns can expect to:

• Engage in hard work and physical activity regardless of weather
• Get up early especially in the summer and be ready to work on time.
• Eventually lead and teach groups and individual volunteers (Do you enjoy people? Talking to the public?)
• Study and apply sustainable, organic, traditional and alternative growing practices
• Participate in all aspects of growing food (cultivation, planting, transplanting, harvesting, washing, distributing…)
• Participate in upkeep and maintenance of the intern common space
• Interns are responsible to carry their own health insurance and are responsible for their own medical expenses.
• Additional desirable traits: being a morning person, ability to operate tillers/ weedeaters/ mowers, willingness to learn new skills, enjoying people, make friends with all types of people, having a sense of humor

Education Opportunities:

• A systematic education consisting of independent assigned reading and group discussion covering basic principles of growing food and doing nonprofit, community building work.
• Experiential, hands-on learning every day
• Excellent home library is available
• Work with the local food pantry, Welcome Table and other hunger alleviation institutions
• Sitting in on our work with local colleges & other organizations
• Field trips
• Other nearby farms offer opportunities for extra learning experiences
• The freedom to utilize your expertise and passions to create something new.

Schedule: Interns are expected to work aprx 36 hours / week M -F and occasional hours on Saturdays.
Interns should have their own health insurance coverage. The Lord’s Acre does not assume responsibility for any medical expenses of the intern. Additionally, we are not required to provide Worker's Compensation insurance.

Housing: We are attempting for the first time to create onsite housing at the garden. If this is not ready in time for interns, interns will temporarily live with the garden manager in her home (where interns have lived for the past 7 years). At the garden housing we will create a common kitchen and bath area but bedrooms will be private.

We cannot provide housing for pets or children and only for very occasional overnight guests.


Additional Details:

We are looking for highly motivated & committed interns to assist in the daily & ever changing needs of this amazing and ground breaking organization. This is an amazing opportunity to learn and be part of creating ways of building community that benefits people, animals, plants & the environment. We are serious and hard-working, yet flexible and fun-loving. The best applicants will be joyful, grateful folks who come not only to receive but to give of themselves whether that’s leading a group of volunteers or doing household chores on time without being asked. We give honest references and what a person gives day-in and day-out, is what they’ll get out of this experience.

We encourage you to call past interns to gauge what the experience is like through their eyes and will provide that contact information when asked.

Compensation

this position is: stipend / non-monetary compensation

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline