The Summer Associate will be based at Kitsap Conservation District’s GRACE Garden Project which coordinates Farm to Food Pantry and Farm to Community Programs serving food insecure children, families and seniors in Kitsap County. These programs work to expand capacity in the Kitsap hunger relief system, extend hunger relief programming to mobility-limited, underserved communities and support ongoing activities to increase access and equity in the local food system by providing fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Supervision, training, and support for this position will be provided by the GRACE Garden Coordinator. Project Background: Harvest VISTA, a program of Harvest Against Hunger, connects local growers, food banks and volunteers to secure fresh produce for distribution to thousands of people throughout Washington State. Harvest VISTA program finds new and innovative ways to decrease waste of fresh fruits and vegetables and increase the availability of nutritious produce for food bank clients. The VISTA Summer Associate (SA) program will work in an intensive level of summer service for 10 weeks. The SA will work to start or support existing food bank, community or school garden projects.

Member Duties : The Summer Associate (SA) will conduct education/outreach at food pantries, community meals, school summer lunch programs, and farmers market, develop curriculum and educational materials for outreach activities. The SA will coordinate nutrition/cooking classes with the SNAP-Ed and local chefs, as well as coordinate Farm to Food Pantry (F2FP)/gleaning network deliveries to local food pantries, tribal leaders, senior and low-income housing sites and contacting F2FP farmers about, produce availability and delivery. With the help of the Kitsap Gleaning Coordinator, the SA will identify mobility-limited food insecure individuals and communities. In addition, the SA will inventory commercial kitchens/food processing options, conduct surveys at local food banks on the feasibility of locally processed foods, assist with county-wide food systems assessment focused on access to nutritious foods, and gather, tabulate and report data on F2FP programming and related food access activities.

Website link here: https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=94831&fromSearch=true#new_tab