Willing Hands, 198 Main Street, Norwich VT 05055 - www.willinghands.org

Position Title: Gardens Assistant

Supervisor(s): Willing Hands Manager of Programs & Farming Coordinator

Employee Status: Seasonal: June 2023 - September 2023, 32-40 hours/week

Primary Location: Norwich Vermont with work at various garden locations including in Norwich, East Thetford VT and Lebanon NH

Pay Rate: Assistant Level $17/hour

Program Summary: Willing Hands’ mission is to recover fresh food in order to reduce waste, improve health, and provide reliable access to nutritious food for our neighbors experiencing food insecurity. Willing Hands grows, gleans, and recovers healthy food and distributes it year-round for free through a network of 90 social service organizations in the greater Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Willing Hands’ garden plots play a crucial role in our goal to provide healthy fresh food throughout the year to our recipient organizations. Gardens located in Norwich VT, East Thetford VT, and Lebanon NH provide Willing Hands the opportunity to engage hundreds of volunteers in our work, and to grow targeted food crops that supplement our food recovery channels and are highly desired by our recipients struggling with food and nutrition insecurity.

Position Summary: Work closely with the Farming Coordinator to accomplish all tasks related to growing vegetables in Willing Hands’ gardens in any of our 4+ growing locations. Lead or co-lead volunteer crews during scheduled garden work sessions, and support communication with volunteers and management of the volunteer data to show impact of this work that furthers the mission of Willing Hands.

Responsibilities

• Growing Food: Assist with all garden duties including but not limited to seeding, planting, cultivating, weeding, harvesting. Help record harvest crops and weights, and label and transport harvested produce from the gardens to Willing Hands.
• Volunteer management: help maintain volunteer records and garden events calendar in the Willing Hands “gleanweb” database, document volunteer attendance, and work closely with volunteer gardeners during garden sessions.
• Communications: support Farming Coordinator with weekly updates from the gardens to share with volunteer crews, help with emails and/or calls to volunteers on specific event rosters in the event weather or other unforeseen events cause scheduling changes. Take photos during the garden sessions to share with Willing Hands’ communications team for use in social media postings and weekly updates to volunteers.
• Assist Farming Coordinator and other Willing Hands staff with additional duties as assigned; these may include, but are not limited to, helping sort produce in the coolers, assisting with compost management at the Willing Hands facility, driving Willing Hands vehicles to/from gardens or other sites to transport food.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Proven garden and/or farming experience, and a passion for growing healthy food in a sustainable manner and contributing to the current transition of the Willing Hands gardens to no-till regenerative methods for growing food;
• Ability to spend long periods of time outdoors performing often strenuous and sometimes monotonous agricultural tasks. Ability to comfortably lift up to 50 pounds, often repeatedly, and assist volunteers who may not be able to lift as much.
• Personable and positive attitude and demonstrated ability to communicate with and manage volunteers in variable outdoor conditions, and work with diverse and multi-disciplinary teams;
• Excellent time-management and organizational skills;
• Strong verbal and written communication skills;
• Commitment to safety protocols, to be an example, and ensure volunteers adhere to the same;
• Proficient with digital communications, comfort with Google Docs, and ability to quickly learn additional digital platforms such as gleanweb for volunteer management;
• Ability to act as an ambassador for Willing Hands and our mission any time working with volunteers, at partner farms, with supporters, and with the general public;
• Detail-oriented and efficient.

Additional Position Considerations: This position requires some flexibility for working hours dependent on growing conditions in gardens and the scheduled volunteer sessions. Additionally, personal transportation may be necessary to get between garden locations and the Willing Hands facility if/when Willing Hands vehicles are not available.

General Expectations of all Staff

• Understand and support the mission of Willing Hands as expressed by the Board
• Greet the public through all channels of communication with courtesy and respect
• Network with allied organizations and initiatives
• Coordinate and integrate efforts with staff working on other Willing Hands programs
• Actively participate in all-staff activities which may include aspects of planning, evaluation, and outreach, as well as all-staff meetings held at the Norwich facility.
• Work in a safe manner and report any safety hazards to the Executive Director
• Maintain individual workstation and office in a clean, attractive manner
• Practice good work habits of flexibility, efficiency, punctuality, dependability, and confidentiality
• Strive to upgrade existing skills and learn new ones
• Employ good communication skills by sharing information, listening to others, and giving positive input
• Work as a team member by helping others and making suggestions for improvements

Benefits & Work Environment

• Paid time off and holidays. Paid holidays within this seasonal position include: Juneteenth, July 4, and Labor Day.
• This position is based in our Norwich location with greenhouse, garden and composting on-site as well as two new garden locations within 2 miles of Willing Hands. Off-site garden locations include the Farmacy Garden located on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock campus in Lebanon NH, and the Garden at Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center located in East Thetford VT.
• Mileage is reimbursed at the current federal reimbursement rate for all approved work travel with a personal vehicle.
• Opportunity to set professional development goals with supervisor
• Regular meetings of Willing Hands staff

Job Types: Full-time, Temporary

Pay: $17.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Paid time off

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Monday to Friday
• Weekend availability

COVID-19 considerations:
Our employees are all vaccinated, wearing masks if/when exposed to known Covid-19 case, and staying home if showing any symptoms of illness.

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Norwich, VT: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Education:

• High school or equivalent (Preferred)

Experience:

• Farming: 1 year (Preferred)

Work Location: Multiple Locations

Please Note :
clarksqn.com is the go-to platform for job seekers looking for the best job postings from around the web. With a focus on quality, the platform guarantees that all job postings are from reliable sources and are up-to-date. It also offers a variety of tools to help users find the perfect job for them, such as searching by location and filtering by industry. Furthermore, clarksqn.com provides helpful resources like resume tips and career advice to give job seekers an edge in their search. With its commitment to quality and user-friendliness, Site.com is the ideal place to find your next job.