The Food Project’s mission is to create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system.
The FAO Schwarz Fellow will engage directly with teens in The Food Project’s youth programs and will help plan for youth engagement in the Community Access programs.
The FAO Schwarz Fellow will split their time between direct service and strategic project work. In addition, the Fellow will spend about 10 percent of their time on professional development, cohort gatherings, and their Fellowship role.
The Fellow will focus on supervising teens in the organization’s youth programs.
The Fellow will:
The FAO Schwarz Fellow will focus on helping plan for youth engagement in the Community Food Center (CFC) programs.
The Fellow will:
In addition to direct service and special project work, Fellows spend about 10 percent of their time on Fellowship professional development, cohort gatherings, and their Fellowship role. Each Fellow spends about two hours per week on Fellowship work in the area of social media, recruitment or professional development planning.
These experiences will help you leave a lasting mark on this program, collaborate closely with other Fellows, and acquire skills that will be valuable in your future educational and professional pursuits.
For 30 years, The Food Project has partnered with youth from diverse backgrounds to foster personal development while simultaneously building a stronger, healthier, and more equitable food system. Food and farming are the medium through which youth learn:The Food Project operates in three overlapping areas: youth, food, and community. In a typical year, 120 teens participate in a positive youth development curriculum, combining paid work on the farms and in community programs with insightful and empowering workshops. These programs consist of three tiers:
Seed Crew – In their introductory summer, youth acquire critical workplace, communication, and social-emotional skills and build their foundational knowledge.
Dirt Crew – Youth who graduate from Seed Crew are employed during the academic year, deepening their confidence as food systems leaders.
Root Crew – The most experienced cohort of youth are active year-round at the cutting edge of food system innovation in their home communities.
In the broader community, The Food Project develops and applies innovative approaches to food distribution, providing hundreds of thousands of servings of fresh produce each year through hunger relief partnerships, affordable and SNAP-accessible farmers markets, and other innovative food access and community gardening programs.
While the pandemic has had a significant impact on The Food Project’s programs, the organization adapted to maintain services to youth and the community. As food insecurity skyrocketed in Massachusetts, The Food Project maximized the impact of the organization’s farms, distributing over 350,000 servings of fresh produce to people in need through donations, sales at affordable and SNAP/HIP-accessible farmers markets, and more. In its youth programs, The Food Project made the difficult but necessary choice to suspend its in-person programs for the first time in its 30-year history. Teens already enrolled in Dirt and Root Crew were engaged in online learning through the Spring and Summer. In the fall of 2020, hybrid outdoor in-person and remote youth programs were instituted, including Sprout Crew, a new fast-track program combining the essential elements of Seed and Dirt Crews.
The Food Project’s youth programs use evaluation tools developed in consultation with consultants at SEED Impact to demonstrate growth of skills and knowledge across several impact areas. The 2019-20 results showed strong progress across five impact areas.
Assessments of youth in Dirt Crew showed:
For more information about The Food Project’s impact, please visit their Statistics and Press page.
COVID SAFETY
The Food Project has decided on a combination of proof of vaccination for those staff members and youth participants that are vaccinated and a weekly negative COVID test for those who are not:
Seasonal and Year-round Staff/FAO Fellow: Vaccinated staff will need to send a digital copy or photo of their vaccine card to HR.
Unvaccinated staff will need to send a negative COVID test result (from the prior 72 hours) to HR by 5 pm on the night before they come to work for the week. This must be done each week.
If the test result is not received, unvaccinated staff cannot come to work and will not be paid until the test result is received.
Testing: TFP will not pay for COVID tests, but will try to provide information on where staff and youth can get a free test.
Positive Test Result: Anyone receiving a positive test result must notify their manager and HR, provide as much information as possible about close contacts, and quarantine for 10 days (per BPHC). To get paid time off to recover from COVID, they must provide proof of a positive COVID test to HR. If they prefer not to provide that, they can take unpaid leave or use vacation, sick time, and/or personal days. Masks:
Unvaccinated staff and youth must wear a mask at all times, inside or outside.
Vaccinated staff and youth must wear a mask when inside or in a vehicle.
Serve and Grow/Build-a-Garden: All staff and youth must wear a mask when leading/participating in Serve and Grow or Build-A-Garden regardless of vaccination status. Volunteers will also wear masks.
NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT
In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals, employment decisions at TFP will be based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. TFP does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
Location: Boston
Website: hefoodproject.org
Year founded: 1991
Staff: 32
To apply, click the apply button to the right. You will be redirected to the application form where you will be asked to answer a few simple questions. We also request that you upload a résumé and cover letter (PDF). Please name your files as follows:
LAST_FIRST_RESUME_TFP
LAST_FIRST_LETTER_TFP
In your letter, please describe your interest in working at The Food Project and include your responses to the following questions:
How did you learn about the FAO Schwarz Fellowship, and why are you interested in being an FAO Schwarz Fellow?
Why are you specifically interested in being the FAO Schwarz Fellow at The Food Project? Why does their mission engage you?
What background and experiences would you bring to the direct service and special project work at this organization?
Applicants must be college seniors at accredited four-year colleges or universities at the time of application and be eligible to work in the United States for the duration of the two-year Fellowship.
APPLICATIONS FOR THIS FELLOWSHIP ARE NOW CLOSED.
The Food Project will review each application carefully and select its Fellow by April 29th. Thanks for your interest.