FoodCorps Massachusetts Service Site Descriptions Below you will find detailed descriptions of all of the service sites located in this state. Each description includes details about the community where the service site is based,the overall work and mission of the organization, and what an incoming service member can expect to do on a day-to-day basis at this site. We hope this document will help you to best determine where you are most interested in serving! Please note that this is a list of FoodCorps service sites in the 2018-19 and is likely to change for the 2019-2020 service term. Some of the sites listed here may no longer host service members next year, and new sites may come on board. Backyard Growers Gloucester Community Description Gloucester is a small, economically diverse seaside city with under 30,000 residents located northeast of Boston. One out of every six residents is a client at the local food pantry, and a large part of each school community qualifies for the federal free and reduced price lunch program. The city itself has a small-town feel, with a working waterfront and an active arts community combining to create an eclectic, active, and sometimes unconventional community. Gloucester has a charming downtown, beautiful beaches, and unique places to explore the woods as well as the shore, and it is about one hour from Boston by car or commuter rail. Gloucester is a special place! Organization Description Located in a beautiful seaside city north of Boston, Backyard Growers (BYG) is a small, grassroots nonprofit helping to reshape Gloucester's relationship with food. We provide resources and support to establish vegetable gardens at homes, housing communities, organizations, and schools. In the end, we create life-long gardeners inspired by the power of growing one's own food. BYG’s School Garden Program enables 100% of preK-7th grade students in the Gloucester Public School District to plant, grow, harvest, and eat fresh food from their own school gardens. Students build and maintain gardens, engage in district-wide school planting and harvesting events, learn from BYG educators in their classrooms, and taste new vegetables as part of our Harvest of the Month program! Our main goal in the schools is to increase children's exposure to fresh vegetables and to making healthy food choices by providing them with hands-on, fun gardening and food preparation experiences. We also strive to integrate growing and eating healthy food in school culture, build the capacity of each school to maintain their gardens long-term, explore academic subject areas through gardening and food systems-focused experiential education, and strengthen our school garden model as we spread it across Massachusetts. Service Activities Description Our FoodCorps service member is focused on our elementary and middle school programs. At the elementary level, the service member will implement our Salad Days & Fall Harvest Days program growing 2 crops each year with K-5 students, teach our 1st grade in-class food systems lessons, lead cafeteria taste tests, and develop special events and initiatives including to promote food literacy and healthy school food culture. Beyond elementary school, 6th graders grow popcorn as part of their science class and 7th graders grow wheat while they study the development of civilization in social studies. The service member will support both programs, collaborating with teachers to integrate the school garden into their lessons, designing and leading lessons of their own, and strengthening connections with other academic departments to make the program truly interdisciplinary. The service member will work alongside the rest of our School Programs team in our funky Main Street office, and have opportunities to delve into in-class education, school garden work, efforts to increasing access to school meals, and true community organizing as we connect the work we do in the schools to the greater community of Gloucester. Skills, Interest, Knowledge Preferences Our site can be a great fit for service members interested in education (both traditional and nontraditional), food systems, school garden education, and nonprofit management. As a small community nonprofit, we partner closely with schools, but are a separate entity. Service at Backyard Growers encompasses many different types of service: teaching lessons, leading after school/extracurricular activities, leading garden activities, and working in cafeterias. This very rich service experience requires adaptability and an openness to learning about many different spheres that combine to form a whole school food environment. Prior knowledge in any of these areas will be advantageous for both our site and service member. Helpful Languages: Spanish & Portuguese ​ Service Members Need Car? Required ​ Chicopee Public Schools Chicopee Community Description The City of Chicopee is known as the crossroads of New England. This has been so for over 150 years. Going back to the industrial revolution, the city's location at the confluence of the Chicopee and Connecticut rivers gave it a natural advantage over many other potential development sites in Western New England. The rivers provided power and transportation opportunities not available in many other communities. As the Industrial Revolution waned, Interstate Routes 90 and 91 were built and have become the commercial corridor for all of New England. Both of these interstates run through Chicopee and are easily accessible. This has provided Chicopee with present-day development advantages. The City of Chicopee is also home to Westover Air Reserve Base, the largest air reserve base in the United States. The airfield has a civilian terminal and the longest runway in New England. Organization Description ChicopeeFRESH is the farm to school initiative of the Chicopee Public Schools, being spearheaded by the district's Food Service Department. The mission of ChicopeeFRESH is to provide every student in the district with access to locally sourced and nutritious meals, along with experiential learning opportunities in the classroom and school garden. Our vision is to achieve food security in the community, support the New England food economy, and empower students to develop healthy and positive relationships with their food. With the support of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, the Food Service Department has increased local spending from just 1% in 2014, to over 16% during the 206-2017 school year (not including regional milk cartons). The department has developed a statewide reputation for excellence when it comes to serving up delicious farm fresh meals. In fall 2017, Food Service Director, Joanne Lennon, was named a Kale Blazer by Mass Farm to School. The Chicopee Food Service Department consists of a staff of over 100 full and part-time employees, located at 15 sites throughout the city. Our staff serves over 100,000 nutritious meals per month. We could be considered the largest restaurant in the city of Chicopee! All students receive free breakfast and lunch through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). There are currently 6 school gardens throughout the city, with plans to expand to 9 gardens by 2020. FoodCorps Service Members will work directly with schools to build a link between local food on school lunch trays and nutrition education taking place in classrooms and school gardens. Service Activities Description The FoodCorps service members will each split their time between two elementary schools. One member will serve Stefanik and Litwin schools and the other will serve Bowe and Lambert Lavoie schools All four schools have gardens and an existing relationship with FoodCorps, although service will look different across the sites. The service members will deliver hands-on lessons in the classroom, promote healthy eating in the cafeteria, and lead after school gardening and cooking clubs. The service members will have autonomy to develop and implement projects in collaboration with the school community to promote a healthy school food environment. In addition to serving 1-2 days at each school every week, the service members will co-host 4 taste tests each month, rotating between elementary schools to reach all K-5 students on a bi-monthly basis. The service members will follow the MA FTS Harvest of the Month program, and sample a new farm fresh recipe each month, with the goal of finding recipes that appeal to students and are easy and cost-effective to prepare in the kitchen. The service members will also spend time in the department learning about local sourcing from the Food Service Director and Farm to School Coordinator. In addition to these responsibilities, the service members will be expected to help implement school garden and community engagement events. These positions require service members who are strong communicators, self-starters, and skilled multi-taskers. Skills, Interest, Knowledge Preferences In order to thrive in Chicopee, a FoodCorps service member will need to be a self-starter, able to create and manage independent projects, and juggle multiple projects at a time. The service member will ideally have experience in growing and cooking healthy food. Furthermore, they should be comfortable speaking to and managing groups of people and diverse stakeholders (e.g. students, parents, teachers, principals, farmers, city and state officials, community organizations, etc.) This is a great site for those interested in food service operations and local procurement. Helpful Languages: Spanish ​ Service Members Need Car? Required ​ Groundwork Lawrence Lawrence Community Description Lawrence is home to 80,231 residents, and is the most heavily populated Latino city in New England and one of the poorest and youngest. Per 2015 US Census data, 26% of residents are living below the poverty level, 40% are below the age of 25 and 76% are Latino. Low income and working poor families are vulnerable to unpredictable events such as sudden job loss or a steep rise in utility bills or food prices. One in 3 families is persistently unable to meet their daily food needs.