Gleaning Specialist VISTA
Mesa County, Colorado
Work Boots-on-the-Ground Opportunity along Colorado’s Western Slope
We are excited to welcome a Gleaning Specialist VISTA to expand and build capacity within our gleaning program along Colorado’s Western Slope.
About
Harvest Against Hunger’s Harvest VISTA program acts as a gleaning and surplus-produce-recovery program incubator, working with partner host sites to place AmeriCorps VISTAs across the country. These VISTAs serve as gleaning coordinators, building localized, sustainable produce-recovery programs that connect farmers to hunger-relief agencies to increase the amount of fresh, nutritious produce available to people experiencing nutrition insecurity. This position is located in Mesa County, Colorado serving with UpRoot Colorado.
UpRoot Colorado (UpRoot) increases the nutritional security of Coloradans by harvesting and redistributing surplus, nutrient-dense foods while supporting the resilience of farmers.
UpRoot partners with farmers, hunger-relief organizations, and volunteers to glean surplus produce for distribution to community members facing nutrition insecurity. Our efforts simultaneously work to reduce on-farm surplus, increase the nutrition security of Colorado’s residents, and to strengthen connection and food wisdom in the communities we serve. UpRoot is young but growing quickly! Now in our seventh year of operations, we have gleaned (i.e., harvested) more than 2.3 million servings of surplus, nutrient-dense produce and redistributed this life-sustaining resource into the hands and homes of Colorado residents facing food and/or nutrition insecurity.
With the support of a Harvest VISTA, we will significantly increase our positive impact within the Colorado food system as we expand our work along Colorado’s Western Slope.
Program Overview:
The AmeriCorps member in this role will recruit new partners and volunteers locally to support the gleaning efforts. The member will be tasked with expanding the program into Mesa County by recruiting new partners such as farmers and hunger relief agencies, and volunteers; coordinating local gleaning events and food distribution; develop materials to increasing capacity and effectiveness, such as a gleaning toolkit, volunteer management materials, and a data collection system. The member will also represent UpRoot at convenings with state and nationwide partnerships, and will build organization capacity through fundraising efforts such as grant research.
Program Benefits:
- Housing stipend
- Choice of Education Award or End-of-Service stipend
- Education award upon successful completion of service
- Childcare assistance, if eligible
- Living allowance
- Relocation allowance
- For details about AmeriCorps VISTA healthcare benefits, please click here.
Service Areas
- Community outreach
- Health
- Hunger
- Environment
Skills
- Community organizing
- Teamwork
- Public speaking
- Writing/Editing/Communications
- Environment
- Recruitment
- Nonprofit management
Terms
- Vehicle recommended
- Permits working at another job during off hours
Interested? Contact:
Maria Mendez-Francisco
maria@harvestagainsthunger.org
206-236-0408
Equal Opportunity Employer
UpRoot Colorado is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discriminatory practices against anyone on the basis of age, race, religion, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and any other protected category. We value—and are working to create—a culture of equity, honesty, transparency, gratitude, clear communication, respect, and continuous learning. We acknowledge that food justice is not achievable without racial justice.Candidates must align with these values and want to contribute to the creation of a new status quo: an equitable food system where all enjoy access to nutrient-dense and locally-produced food, where farmers are valued and made economically whole, and agriculture contributes to the health of both people and our environment.
