Flagstaff Foodlink
Title of AmeriCorps service assignment:
Community Garden Coordinator, Quarter-time, 450 hrs. Location of organization: Flagstaff, AZ
Website of organization: flagstafffoodlink.com
Brief description of organization: Flagstaff Foodlink aims to offer strong educational, organizational and fundraising tools to the exciting, emergent local food movement in the greater Flagstaff community.AmeriCorps Service Assignment Description:
*The community garden coordinator will be responsible for obtaining new plots of land to be used for new gardens. Included in this task is dealing with all the logistics of land acquisition and use such as public land permitting, private land use contracts, etc.
*The coordinator will be responsible for outreach into the greater Flagstaff community to ensure that the information about the opportunity to create a community garden is disseminated and made all-inclusive. This will include extensive advertising, holding meetings with neighborhood association, homeowners associations and the like, holding focus groups with interested parties, hanging informational posters and, distributing flyers.
*The coordinator will be responsible for mentoring groups interested in creating community gardens. Mentoring includes:
1. Guiding the group as to how to prepare the land for a garden, such as securing a water source, preparing the soil and building garden beds.
2. Guiding the group as to how to obtain materials.
3. Guiding the group as to what to plant and how to plant successfully here in Flagstaff’s unique climate.
4. Guiding the group as to opportunities to expand the scope of the garden and its function as a centerpiece of the neighborhood. This can include activities such as, seed saving, composting workshops, companion planting demonstrations, incorporating permaculture design into the garden and neighborhood, installing rainwater catchment systems, extending the season using cold frames and green houses, and using the garden as a teaching tool.