Company description

Sprout City Farms is an urban agriculture nonprofit based in Denver, CO. We collaborate with communities to pursue food justice by cultivating innovative, restorative, educational farms. We envision a thriving and equitable food system supported by a network of farms and partners that nourish, and are nourished by, our surrounding communities.

Since 2010, we have built four community farms across the Denver Metro area. We currently operate three that grow an average of more than 30,000 pounds of produce and reach over 6,000 Coloradans each year. The farms provide Healthy Food Access (over 55% of our total harvest is distributed to families experiencing food insecurity), Community Education and Farmer Training, and Youth Education.

Our current farms are:

• Denver Green School Community Farm (DGS), a 1-acre organic vegetable farm established in 2011 in partnership with Denver Public Schools;
• Mountair Park Community Farm (MAP), a 1.5-acre organic vegetable farm established in 2014 in partnership with the City of Lakewood;
• and the Farm at Jack's Solar Garden (JSG), a 5-acre agrivoltaics site that broke ground in spring 2021 in Longmont, where we are growing produce under solar panels and working with researchers to study the results.

Job description

Our farm at Jack’s Solar Garden (JSG) is a unique site with an emphasis on agrivoltaic research and education. On a combined 2.5 acres within a 4-acre, elevated solar array, Sprout City Farms manages two projects: 1) a University of Arizona (UA) research area studying agrivoltaic vegetable crop production, and 2) a CSA/Market Farm that grows all the seasonal vegetables you would expect to see at a local farmer’s market. We run a CSA, are a vendor at the Saturday Longmont Farmers Market, and distribute our produce through several local food access channels.

We are seeking 3 agrivoltaic farm crew members at Jack’s Solar Farm for the 2025 season. This is a great opportunity for someone with at least one season of small-scale vegetable farming experience who is interested in the nexus of sustainable farming, local food production, and renewable energy. Farm crew members will receive the training needed to do a wide array of field tasks to help meet our research and production goals. The ideal candidates will have previous experience that enables them to work efficiently and effectively outdoors in a physically demanding role, and understand harvest-related time sensitivities. Farm crew should expect to be walking, standing, squatting, stooping, lifting and carrying for the majority of the work day.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Understand and help implement annual crop plan.
• Assist in facilitating harvest to ensure high quality and timely production.
• Participate in and help coordinate all fieldwork activities including bed prep, seeding, weeding, mulching, harvest, cleaning, storage and distribution.
• Assist with leading groups of volunteers in the completion of various farm tasks.
• Assist with food distribution programs and community service programs & events.
• Assist with recordkeeping of harvest totals and research data.
• Adhere to SCF training in employee manual and food safety plan.
• Basic tool, equipment and facility care, cleaning and maintenance.

Desired Experience and Skills:

• 1-2 years’ agricultural field experience on a vegetable farm, or at least one year of experience doing physically demanding outdoor work whether that be farming, landscaping, construction, etc.
• Experience working at a farmer’s market or other food-related retail environment is ideal, but not required.
• Enthusiasm to work on an experimental research farm. Ability to work positively with leadership, for example: following work plan, offering constructive observations, learning from success and failure.
• Willingness to take initiative and follow-through on tasks. Pragmatic and outcome-driven.
• Genuine interest in learning while doing.
• Positive communication style and curiosity mindset.
• Physical stamina and flexibility. Ability and willingness to squat, bend and lift repeatedly and work in a variety of conditions (i.e. endurance to work long days, in diverse weather conditions).
• Flexible availability including working some evenings and weekend events.
• Transportation to the farm and a mobile phone with text capability is required.
• Bilingual English/Spanish speaking and/or writing skills are an asset. Please share with us if you have these skills and if you are interested in connecting with the Spanish-speaking Longmont community.
• Preference will go to local residents rooted in the Longmont and surrounding area.

Time Commitment
40 hours per week including some potential weekends throughout the season, beginning March 14 and ending October 31 (an alternate start date can be as late as April 14 with a corresponding end date of November 14, to be determined with final candidates).

Compensation

This is a full-time seasonal position paid $20-21/hour (depending on experience), plus a $250/month health stipend, for a total compensation range of $24,825 - $25,985. Farm crew members can request 4 days of paid time off, and receive a CSA vegetable share valued at $750+ during their employment. Requests for time off must be submitted for approval. Approval of requests is dependent upon staff schedule coordination, and the needs of the organization.

Work days will be either Monday-Friday (regular field work and distribution days) or Tuesday-Saturday (to accommodate working the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays), to be determined with final candidates. Each farm crew member will be required to work late on 1-2 Thursdays/month (until 6pm) for CSA distribution. Members of the farm crew rotate the responsibility of helping with setup, distribution, and breakdown of our CSA pickup station each week and engage positively with the CSA members. These late Thursdays will be offset by a short day on Friday, provided necessary farm chores are completed Friday morning.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $20/hr +

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline