The Food Forest Collective (FFC) seeks candidates for two half-time positions to expand our community driven program that demonstrates urban ecological and social Permaculture in Seattle. FFC is the non-profit corporation that oversees the Beacon Food Forest (BFF), a six-year-old community volunteer driven project to design, plant and grow an edible urban forest garden that inspires our community to gather together, grow our own food and rehabilitate our local ecosystem (see http://beaconfoodforest.org/). It now occupies 1.75 acres on the west slope of Jefferson Park at 15th Ave and Dakota Street and is about to double in acreage in the next year and a half. We are also currently completing non-profit incorporation and will soon be filing for IRS Section 501(C) 3 tax-exempt status.

This has been an all-volunteer project since its inception with some minor stipends for special projects and educational programs. Thanks to a significant grant from the Bullitt Foundation (our second), we are now prepared to hire two staff positions to help us build the processes and capacities for volunteer coordination, community outreach and fund-raising. These staff members will be primarily responsible for supporting volunteer leadership, which remains very strong, as well as recommending to the Board of Directors policies and procedures that will help us sustain momentum and build capacity through widespread community support.

The Beacon Food Forest is widely known not just in Seattle but nationally and internationally as the largest and most developed urban Permaculture project on public land. Staff will be overseeing volunteer-led student tours and work parties from schools and universities, corporations and not-for-profits as well as visiting programs from other countries and public entities interested in learning from or replicating the model we are building. We regularly attract one hundred volunteers to monthly work parties as well as numerous people in our tours and Permaculture classes. These two roles, which may be held by one or two people, will help us keep up this momentum and build upon the thousands of volunteer hours devoted to this pioneering project.

Community Outreach Coordinator

Principal responsibilities:

  • Keep the greater Seattle and global permaculture community informed of Beacon Food Forest activities by coordinating and supporting volunteers who facilitate the online publishing the Beacon Food Forest newsletter, updating the web site and social media and responding to media inquiries.
  • Work with volunteers to identify and engage with public agencies and private organizations that are concerned with food security, food justice, community building and environmental sustainability.
  • Support our role as a convener for ecological and social permaculture and build solid relationships across the community of Seattle’s food, social and environmental justice organizations.
  • Reach out with volunteers to K-12 schools and universities that are in the neighborhood of Beacon Hill or have expressed a commitment to social and environmental sustainability.
  • Maintain records of outreach activities and their results for committees and periodic reports to sponsors.

Additional responsibilities depending on available time:

  • Support volunteers and committees that organize the logistics for monthly, and possibly more frequent, work parties including participating with the Site Development Committee for planning, project leaders, food, tools and other necessary preparations
  • Coordinate special events such as tours, field trips, independent site projects, and new volunteer orientation nights.
  • Support the volunteer harvest of organic food to share with the community.
  • Support the planning of community events that attract participants and uses of the BFF spaces such as harvest events that are community celebrations
  • Support the Permaculture Education Collective’s classes.
  • Other responsibilities as may be requested from time to time by the FFC Committees and Board.

Qualifications sought:

  • Familiarity through work or volunteer experience with the principles and practices of ecological and social permaculture
  • Evidence of familiarity and support for issues of food security, food justice, community building and environmental sustainability
  • Experience with volunteer-led event planning, tour coordination and community involvement.
  • Experience using social media to build and maintain a community of volunteers as well as communicate activities and accomplishments to a wider audience
  • Excellent writing and speaking skills that convey enthusiasm and commitment to collaborative change
  • Evidence of ability to build and sustain relationships with others that promote new social forms and norms.

Please email your resume to jobs@beaconfoodforest.org