Growing Hope - Ypsilanti - job and internship postings

[Maria Brummel]

Hello good food friends! Growing Hope has some exciting postings to share, including part-time and full-time paid positions, and a number of unpaid (but super valuable!) internships. Please find brief descriptions, direct links, and pdf attachments below, and please feel encouraged to share with your networks. Thank you!

Farmers Market Assistant Manager

The Farmers Market Assistant Manager (20-hr/week, seasonal position) will assist in the success of Growing Hope’s farmers market program areas by playing an active role in on-site and back-end market management, filling in as needed when Market Manager is unavailable, and giving input to the Market Team.  The Assistant Manager will assist in coordinating and administering food assistance programs, record-keeping and reporting, and overall promotion and evaluation of the Ypsilanti Farmers Market. The Assistant Manager works under the supervision of and reports to the Market Manager, who oversees the off-site components of the markets and overall administrative/leadership roles (e.g. policy development, vendor app development and approval, licensing/permits, securing space, marketing, evaluation, partnership coordination, budgeting/purchasing, fundraising, et al).  See the full posting and application instructions here: http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/GrowingHope_AsstMarketMgrJune16.pdf

Urban Farm & Gardens Manager

We are seeking an experienced and dedicated full time Urban Farm and Gardens Manager to join our team. This is a full time position and will begin as soon as it is filled. The Urban Farm and Gardens Manager is responsible for bringing Growing Hope’s vision of Healthy People, Healthy Places, & Healthy Communities to life through the cultivation and management of the outdoor portions of our 1.4 acre urban property in the heart of Ypsilanti, including a series of organic urban farm and demonstration garden areas (including 30x96 foot hoophouse) and surrounding grounds/landscape management. The site is a multi-purpose space used for organic-practice production, demonstration, education and events, and the Urban Farm & Gardens manager must keep the space presentable and inviting to the public at all times. This position needs to possess both the skills of production farmer—business planning, crop planning, space management, marketing—and the creativity and education skills to connect and further develop the demonstration areas with gardeners at all ability levels.  See the full posting and application instructions here:

http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/UrbanFarmGardenManager_GrowingHope16.pdf

YpsiPlanti Social Enterprise Internship

Among Growing Hope’s social enterprises—that helps to further its mission and bring in revenue—is a small retail garden center at 16 S Washington—YpsiPlanti Garden Supply. This dynamic tiny store provides affordable supplies for organic food growing, and uses mostly Michigan supplies. But, it also hands out a large among of gardening advice. Customers and visitors to YpsiPlanti are interested in advice and education about getting started or expanding their home gardens. YpsiPlanti operated as a seasonal pop up in it’s first two seasons, and this spring moved to a permanent location. An intern will assist in business analyses of the store, marketing strategy, building out systems around sourcing and inventory, expanding social media, and providing more educational materials for customers. Interns may help with market research and development of business plans for other social enterprises at Growing Hope. This is a great chance to experience a small business behind the scenes, both in planning and execution stages.

http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/GrowingHope_SocialEnterpriseInternshipJune16.pdf

Urban Garden & Farm Internship

Growing Hope seeks who are interested in learning the skills needed to run a small urban demonstration gardens and tiny urban farm. We grow a diversity of vegetables, fruits, and herbs on our small (less than 1 acre) urban demonstration farm in the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Interns will learn how to manage an urban market garden under organic standards. These skills include propagation, no till bed prepping, compost production, vegetable cultivation, harvesting, post-harvesting handling, marketing, and farm stand management. This is a great opportunity for someone looking to learn how to start up or manage a small, diversified vegetable farm and market their produce in the area of southeast Michigan (or beyond), or someone who wants experience with youth & adult hands-on, outdoor education. An ideal candidate is someone who has gardening/farming experience, but is interested in significantly building on their knowledge and skills.

http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/GrowingHope_UrbanFarmInternshipJune16.pdf

Economic Development Internship

Growing Hope seeks an intern to support several Economic Development projects that both help increase healthy food access and grow businesses and jobs through the local food economy. These include: a Farm to School project, helping our local school district begin to source food from local vendors; Healthy Corner Store initiative, researching and recommending best practices to get local food to small retail outlets; Ypsilanti MarketHub, developing cold storage systems and infrastructure to facilitate more local food to local outlets; Farmers Market Vendor Director; Food Business Navigation Services, and Building Blocks for the Food Entrepreneur, workshops and resources to help local food businesses grow. Intern duties will include research and writing up best practices, developing program materials, and connecting with partners and local food suppliers.

http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/GrowingHope_EconDevelopInternshipJune16.pdf

Farmers Market Internship

Growing Hope seeks interns to support its two Ypsilanti Farmers Markets—Tuesdays in Downtown Ypsilanti and Saturdays in Depot Town, as well as Growing Hope’s Mobile Farm Stand—an offshoot of the market—on Thursdays and Fridays around greater Ypsilanti. These vibrant markets are leaders in offering healthy food access, supporting vendors in their small business pursuits, and bringing vitality to the neighborhoods where they occur. Depending on schedule and skills, interns will help on-site at (at least) one of the weekly markets, and support the back end of what it takes to run a market. This may include marketing/outreach, evaluation & data collection, food assistance administration, Friends of the Market, and other areas.

http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/GrowingHope_FMInternshipJune16.pdf

Social Media/Marketing Internship

This intern will work with Growing Hope to optimize our social media usage through work in Constant Contact, Facebook and Twitter, Flickr, and more. This person would help us to explore and implement different social media tools, and better utilize the tools we currently have in place. The Growing Hope team considers the educational aspect vital to our internship program, and has set aside time each week for discussion and mentoring, as well as reading and writing assignments to supplement in-field learning experiences each week. Intern can work both-site at Growing Hope and remotely when conducting research and compiling information. 
http://growinghope.net/wp-content/uploads/SocialMedia-MarketingInternship_2016.pdf

Applicants for all positions should send resume and cover letter to ap...@growinghope.net.

Maria Brummel, Assistant Director

Growing Hope

734-786-8401 office

248-910-0992 cell

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