Question about staff shares of produce
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Julia Cosgrove
Jun 14, 2015, 8:48:12 AM6/14/15
to FTP Peeps, Susie Walsh Daloz, Laura Williams
Hi farmers!
It's been a long time since I've been in touch, but I wanted to reach out about a farm systems organization question I'm trying to work out at my current job.
I manage a 2 acre urban farm that serves as a life skills and job training program for local high school youth. We pay them a stipend (5 dollars an hour), give them school credit and a share of produce. In addition to my position and the students, there is a full time educator/program coordinator and a seasonal full time farm assistant. We are a program of a healthy food access and urban greening nonprofit. We sell at a curbside farm stand and local Saturday market in addition to through another program that operates a produce store out of a truck and at our office building. There is another program that collects produce seconds and donations from local farms and gardens and distributes it to food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens. This program can take all the seconds that we have to give. The poundage gets recorded and used for grants.
There has never been a formal policy for staff (besides students) taking food home. I'm trying to figure one out. Our director wants continuity across programs and accountability for things produced with their seeds and on their land. No other programs are allowed to take food home as a part of their compensation. As you can probably imagine, eating the food we grow is really important to me being able to have the educator and farm assistant take home food seems like a obvious extension. I am committed to making money on first quality and am totally happy with only seconds.
I would love to hear from you all about the policies that you've encountered. Was there a reasonable cap or weekly poundage or boxed share? Any thoughts would be great!
Hope you all are doing well! I have our picture on my bookshelf and think of you guys often!
All the best,
Julia
It's been a long time since I've been in touch, but I wanted to reach out about a farm systems organization question I'm trying to work out at my current job.
I manage a 2 acre urban farm that serves as a life skills and job training program for local high school youth. We pay them a stipend (5 dollars an hour), give them school credit and a share of produce. In addition to my position and the students, there is a full time educator/program coordinator and a seasonal full time farm assistant. We are a program of a healthy food access and urban greening nonprofit. We sell at a curbside farm stand and local Saturday market in addition to through another program that operates a produce store out of a truck and at our office building. There is another program that collects produce seconds and donations from local farms and gardens and distributes it to food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens. This program can take all the seconds that we have to give. The poundage gets recorded and used for grants.
There has never been a formal policy for staff (besides students) taking food home. I'm trying to figure one out. Our director wants continuity across programs and accountability for things produced with their seeds and on their land. No other programs are allowed to take food home as a part of their compensation. As you can probably imagine, eating the food we grow is really important to me being able to have the educator and farm assistant take home food seems like a obvious extension. I am committed to making money on first quality and am totally happy with only seconds.
I would love to hear from you all about the policies that you've encountered. Was there a reasonable cap or weekly poundage or boxed share? Any thoughts would be great!
Hope you all are doing well! I have our picture on my bookshelf and think of you guys often!
All the best,
Julia
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