Laramie, WY

Job Title: Feeding Laramie Valley Shares Summer Associate

Organization: Feeding Laramie Valley

Type of opportunity: A Feeding Laramie Valley (FLV) Shares Summer Associate (SA) will serve as a community-based activist and advocate for group and individual efforts to promote local food security and equity in Albany County, Wyoming. The position involves hands-on work in local food production (gardening), collection, distribution; assistance with overall organizational operations and in a variety of community food projects.

Duties:

• Work with interns, team member sand volunteers on planting, watering and harvesting food for distribution within the Albany County community.
• Help plan and implement the weekly public distribution of grown and donated produce to individuals experiencing food insecurity as well as participate in various public FLV events.
• Participate in FLV-sponsored events and provide assistance to community-based participatory research projects.•Assist in setting up and staffing Shares booth at Farmers Markets each Thursday and Friday afternoon from mid-July through August. Tasks include:
  • educating public on Feeding Laramie Valley’s Shares program and food production sites
  • enlisting Farmers Market vendors to donate food at end of the market
  • weighing and recording food donations from vendors and the public.
• Help wash, sort, divide and distribute donated produce (process occurs 2 –3 times/week).
• Contribute to FLV social media sites on a regular basis, including photos, videos and program-positive comments regarding work that’s being done.
• Attend meetings and training as arranged with the Food Production Coordinator and FLV Founder.
• Ability to regularly and safely lift up to 50 lbs. with proper body mechanics.
• Ability to work outside, in all weather conditions and be willing to get dirty.
• The Feeding Laramie Valley Shares team members are expected to work independently at times and in a leadership capacity with volunteers.
• Provide a weekly personal narrative (and photo/art journal if desired) of the intern/apprentice experience to the FLV Founder.

Start and end dates: June 3-August 11(Ability to commit to the entire 10-week season with some holiday, weekend and/or evening work as required. There is occasional flexibility in the schedule with supervisor’s advance approval.)

Salary/pay: Bi-weekly living allowance of about $473.00, 35/hours work week for 10 weeks. Choice of an end-of-service-education award of about $1,289.00 that can be used for school payments or federal loans or cash stipend accrued at approximately $4.94 per day.

How to apply: Applicants are asked to write an essay of interest in the position, including experiences with community and other gardening work; and/or other experiences with social justice projects. In this essay, please describe why this position interests you, what relevant experience you may have, and why you would be a good fit for FLV. Applicants may wish to include a statement on how they view this experience enhancing their personal and professional goals.

Please email essay and full contact information to Reece Owens,reece@feedinglaramievalley.org, or contact us for alternative delivery methods. A resume may also be included but is not required. Please place in the email subject line: 2019 VISTA Summer Associate –Shares.

Application deadline: Applications may be submitted beginning February 25, 2019, and must be received no later than 11:00 p.m. Mountain Time, March 25, 2019for consideration for the 2019 AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate –Feeding Laramie Valley Shares Summer Associate position