Company description Growing Gardens uses the experience of growing food in schools, backyards and correctional facilities to cultivate healthy and equitable communities. Job description

Do you want to join a team of driven educators working to get kids excited about healthy food,  building community and connecting with the natural environment? Are you ready to be challenged  and gain new skills? If so, we want you to join our team and grow with us! 

Growing Gardens uses the experience of growing food in schools, backyards and correctional  facilities to cultivate healthy, equitable, communities. We believe that access to nourishing,  culturally-appropriate food is a basic human right. We are working to become an anti-racist  organization through our programs and internal operations. 

Youth Grow is a program of Growing Gardens that collaborates with diverse school communities to  develop sustainable garden education programs at 11 schools. We offer interdisciplinary,  experiential learning opportunities aimed at helping children connect with nature, and grow and eat  their garden harvests. We are seeking to hire  a school garden coordinator who is enthusiastic about using gardens to teach environmental science, explore food traditions and spark curiosity.

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely than white men to apply to jobs  where their qualifications don’t match 100% the job description. If you are interested in the  position, but don’t meet all of the criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

COORDINATOR ROLE 

What the role is: 

∙ Coordinate maintenance and use of the garden 

o Collaborate with Growing Gardens Educator at each site on garden care and use 

o Manage needed garden infrastructure updates (fence and irrigation system) which may include supervising contractors to carry out the project.

o Organize work parties to maintain the garden (e.g  planting, harvesting, weeding,  laying bark chips, repairing beds, fixing irrigation  system, adding compost, etc.) 

o Harvest and distribute produce through cafeteria, food pantry, student families, etc. 

o Coordinate volunteers  

Teach Garden Club (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) 

o Plan and implement dynamic hands-on lessons using the school garden, once a week at each school during three 8-week terms. May involve gardening, cooking, nutrition, food justice,  environmental education, art and related themes.  

o Teach garden activities with the Headstart class at Whitman, 5 times per year.

∙ Community involvement and events 

o Collaboratively, along with the Garden Educator at each site, organize community input and involvement to develop a vision and plan for the school garden program.  

o Integrate the garden and garden produce into other school events - following your  own interest and creativity, and keeping school garden educational activity in mind - such as cooking demos at food pantries, family  gardening workshops, garden activities at Back to School night or other school  events.

∙ Collaborate with Youth Grow team members

• Participate as an active team member of the Youth Grow Program
• Support and assist  with cafeteria tasting tables, and cooking kit production and distribution for Powell Butte students

What we’re looking for: 

∙ A love for teaching elementary school age children 

∙ Some experience growing food using sustainable gardening practices in the Pacific NW 

∙ Experience working with diverse communities, and ability to adapt garden education to meet multicultural communities 

∙ A passion for the mission of Growing Gardens 

∙ Open and direct communicator, asks questions and works well with a team 

∙ A problem solver who enjoys working through challenges and the unknown in creative ways 

Experience that we value but is not required: 

∙ Ability to speak another language represented in the school body ie: Russian, Spanish,  Vietnamese 

∙ Existing connection to this school or neighborhood 

∙ Since we partner with schools in diverse low-income neighborhoods, we especially value  candidates with life or work experience in similar neighborhoods 

∙ Community organizing skills and ability to engage with a broad group of community  members 

∙ Previous work experience with youth in educational settings.

∙ Experience applying anti-racism perspective to work 

Other Requirements: 

∙ Occasional availability for evening and weekend events 

∙ Ability to pass background check 

∙ Covid vaccination

Time (part time to full time): We have openings at 3 schools for School Garden Coordinators. So, applicants can apply for 1, 2 or 3 so that the position ranges from 12 hours a week to full-time.

Compensation: $18.55/hour. Benefits vary with the number of weekly hours. Full time employees eligible for full health insurance, retirement contribution, life insurance, EAP, paid vacation, alternative healthcare and more.

Compensation this position is : hourly, $15-20/hr Application instructions DeadlineNovember 27, 2022