Weekly Update for February 22
Weekly update for week of Monday, February 22, 2010
Happy day!
Check out our Year in Review COMING SOON! Go to our website www.cskdetroit.org/earthworks-- it will be there as soon as we can figure out how to put it up!
A piece of the sky and a chunk of the earth lie lodged in the heart of every human being.
~ Thomas Moore
I. Volunteer Opportunities:
Tuesday, 5-7pm: Youth Farm Stand. For information on volunteering with our YFS, please email cdobey@cskdetroit.org.
Wednesday 9am-12:30pm Regular Volunteer Hours: Please join us after working in the gardens for lunch in the soup kitchen.
Thursday 5-7pm: Growing Healthy Kids. For more information on volunteering with GHK, please email cdobey@cskdetroit.org.
II. Announcements:
1. Michigan Good Food Summit. February 25 in Lansing, Mi. The summit will assemble food system stakeholders from across the state to shape a plan that propels Michigan towards food production, distribution and marketing to support equity, sustainability and thriving economies. There are bus seats open for Detroiters who would like transportation to Lansing for the event. Email Kad cdobey@cskdetroit.org to get a seat! (must be registered in event for seat, check out http://www.michiganfood.org/ for more info)
2. City Bees Detroit presents All About Bees conference for March 6, 2010! Conference will run from 9am-4pm at the Waldorf School. Check out their website: www.citybeesdetroit.com or contact at citybeesdetroit@gmail.com
3. 5. Gleaner’s Job Posting: Fresh Food Share (please see below for more information). Email rbonelli@gcfb.org for more information.
4. 4-Day Suburban-Urban Permaculture Training with Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture Sponsored by: Southeastern Michigan Permaculture Guild and The Greening of Detroit. April 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th 9AM to 6PM Gleaners Food Bank 2131 Beaufait Detroit, MI. http://www.midwestpermaculture.com/Flyers/Perm-Detriot-4day.pdf
Price & Registration: Before March 1st: $400, After March 1st: $450. Registration includes lunch for the 4 days and the course text: ‘Gaia’s Garden’. Make Checks payable to: The Greening of Detroit. To pay by Visa or Mastercard contact Kido Pielack at 313-285-1256 or Kido@GreeningofDetroit.com,
5. Humanities Center, Brown Bag Colloquium Series presents: D-Town Farm: Race and the Urban Garden Movement in Detroit by sociology professor Monica White. The talk will discuss how urban farmers engage community gardening as a means of renegotiating their social relationship with the environment to solve community problems and to recreate the city from the bottom up. Wednesday, February 24 12:30-1:30 pm 2339 Faculty Administration Building, Wayne State University. Free and open to public!
III. Update from Patrick
and now for the update
It was a pretty slow week around these parts, not that much going on.
The truck was out of commission for a couple of days, so we were not able to pick up brew waste until the end of the week, but it was back up and running by the end of the week, enabling us to continue picking up compostables. The compost is really the pride and joy these days, mainly on account of there being little other reason to leave the office. Even with this cold weather it keeps cranking away staying about 115 degrees, and melting the snow off of it even on these snowy days.
We did get the chance to plant our first seeds, collards, kale, onions and scallions this past week. The collards and kale are both up and begging to get pricked out. I would be nice to wait until Wednesday so volunteers could be a part of pricking them out, but they need to be pricked out today! Scallions and onions are starting to sprout as well. This week more collards and kale if they come in the mail as well as leeks – waiting for seeds to come in is really holding us up. Next year we get those orders in early.
Snowy weather is really going to limit what we can do this week, with some predicting 8 inches today, and more snow though out the week it’s going to be hard to move around and get things done. If we can get out though we are long over due to be prepping the high tunnel and replanting it. We also have a big stack of brush that needs to get cut up and hauled away. I’m really itching for spring, and hoping for a melt soon so we can start prepping the first beds, we have collards and kale to get planted out in the first week in April so we need some melting and drying. Fortunately everything this under a nice cover of leaf mulch which really helps to help the soils from being too soggy and requiring much less effort to prep them.
I think that’s enough for this week, until next week,
onward.
Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan
Job Description
Job Title: Fresh Food Share Coordinator
Reports To: Director of Program Services
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt
Department: Program Services
Program Overview:
The Green Ribbon Collaborative (GRC) is a collaborative between The Greening of Detroit, Gleaners Food Bank, the Fair food Network and The Eastern Market Corporation. The GRC fosters innovation and sustainable solutions to improve the community based food system of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan through joint action of its member organizations and by working with other key stakeholders on a program or project basis. The fresh food share is a program of the Green ribbon Collaborative. The Fresh Food Share Program (FFS) is a community based food distribution system serving the near east side of Detroit. We aim to increase access to culturally acceptable and nutritionally adequate food among residents for Detroit’s east side through a fresh fruit and vegetable distribution system, agricultural tourism, rewarding volunteer experiences and education programs. The Program Coordinator works with a team of a wholesale Market Expeditor, a local agriculture Retail Manger, and Urban agriculture staff member and contractual staffing for marketing and evaluation efforts. Only the Program Coordinator is a Gleaners Community food Bank staffer. All other positions are staffed by collaboration partners, (except contractual staff).
Position Summary:
Reporting to the Manager of Program Services, the Program Coordinator will recruit and communicate with distribution sites and manage the process of packing food boxes with the assistance of a volunteer workforce. The Program Coordinator will also be responsible for managing team activities: food sourcing, food delivery, newsletter content, productions and distribution, and urban agriculture tours with program partners. Marketing and evaluation efforts will be managed by the Program Coordinator with support from 2 contractual consultants.
Scope of Position:
Budgetary Responsibility: High
Personnel Responsibility: Moderate
Access to Confidential Info: Low
Supervisory responsibility: High (2 consultants reporting directly to this position)
Community contact: Board: Low; Donors: Low; Volunteers: High; Food Partners: Moderate, Other community reps: High
Part-Time, 15hours per week
Primary Responsibilities: include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
· Coordinate documentation submitted by collaborative to program funder
· Coordinate collaborative meetings
· Implement budget
· Manage program
· Recruit and communicate with distribution sites
· Coordinate volunteer process
· Manage box production
· Coordinate delivery logistics
· Oversee Marketing and Evaluation Contractors
· Oversee marketing efforts for food box, agriculture tours and all programming related to the Fresh Food Share Collaborative
· Process quarterly staffing and vendor invoices from collaboration partners
· Outreach to continue to grow program
Qualifications:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Minimum:
· Bachelor’s Degree
· Program development and evaluation experience
· Highly self-guided and self motivated
· Highly organized: must have the ability to coordinate personal work activities as well as work plans in coordination with other program partners
· Excellent oral and written communication and facilitation skills
· Excellent interpersonal skills and willingness to represent the Green Ribbon Collaborative with a variety of audiences
Desirable:
· Strong background in nutrition and health education, and materials development
· Knowledge of regional / seasonal eating and grasp of overall food issues
· Knowledge of Spanish
Education/Experience:
Bachelor’s Degree
Language Ability:
Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required. Strong interpersonal skills with all customers and contacts, internal and external, are required.
Math Ability:
Basic bookkeeping experience.
Reasoning Ability:
Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
Computer Skills:
To perform this job successfully, an individual should have a thorough proficiency of the Microsoft Office suite of products including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
Certificates and Licenses:
Valid driver's license and proof of insurance
Equipment: The position requires operation of standard office equipment including but not limited to: personal computer, printer, fax machine and telephone.
Work Environment:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The standard work environment is an office setting with fluorescent lighting and temperature and humidity controlled by air conditioning and heating. The noise level in the work environment is usually low. The employee will occasionally be required to perform duties in a wide variety of settings (i.e. Warehouse or industrial environments, outdoors, other corporate settings.) Occasionally the job will require six to ten hours of off-site work, primarily standing or walking carrying loads from place to place.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The employee must be able to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to speak, hear and use hands. Moderate amounts of walking as well as long periods of sitting or standing are occasionally required. The position will also require intra and interstate travel by automobile, airplane, etc.
The above job description has been reviewed and approved by:
_____________________________ ___________________________
Department Manager/Date Human Resources/Date
I have read, understand and will comply with the job description for the position of Green Ribbon Program Coordinator. I further understand I may be required to perform job-related duties not outlined in the above job description as it is intended only as a summary to describe general nature and essential job functions. It is not intended to be an exhaustive statement of duties, knowledge, skills, experience, abilities or qualifications associated with this position and it may be changed at any time at the discretion of Gleaners Community Food Bank of SE MI management. I also understand that the most recently dated job description on file in the Human Resources Department will be considered the official job description.
_____________________________
Employee/Date