Location: Beckley,WV, USA
Stewards VISTA: Plant It Forward - Fund & Dev Y3
Plant It Forward provides resettled refugees to become urban and local farmers in the greater Houston area with access to land, capital, technical assistance and markets. So far, we have relied on direct purchase of produce from farmers and selling it downstream to retail and wholesale customers under our Enterprise program. But this is not financially sustainable, and creates dependency on farmers to rely on us to sell their produce. We want to revamp our Enterprise program to become an Opportunity Creation lab for our farmers through the following: Training both farmers and a cohort of Market Assistants to help the farmers to sell more produce at farmers markets throughout Houston/Galveston through better displays, data capture and salesmanship, connect with midstream and downstream food processors and consumer packaged good companies to create partnerships with our farmers to use their produce into new, novel products, organize cooking classes and other high-end, high margin experiences and events to generate more income for farmers and selectively look for restaurants, Food Access organizations and other wholesale channels and train farmers to service those clients. This is a great opportunity for a VISTA volunteer to learn about, design, deploy and scale new business models and products in produce & food marketing, and re-design a $400,000/year business/sales operation from the ground up. Further help on this page can be found by clicking here.
Member Duties : Developing training resources for both farmers and a cohort of Market Assistants to help the farmers to sell more produce at farmers markets throughout Houston/Galveston through better displays, data capture and salesmanship Connect with farmers market operators throughout the Houston/Galveston area and keep a calendar of relevant markets and events Create partnerships with our farmers to use their produce into new, novel products Organize chef-led cooking classes and other high-end, high margin experiences and events to generate more income for farmers Develop grant writing resources around Food Access programs and grant opportunities, under tutelage of Development Associate Create marketing & PR campaign around the benefits of farm fresh produce for healthy eating, environmental sustainability and enhanced lifestyle Develop a data collection framework to capture leads & sales created through our work on behalf of farmers
Program Benefits : Choice of Education Award or End of Service Stipend , Stipend , Training , Childcare assistance if eligible , Health Coverage* , Relocation Allowance , Living Allowance , Education award upon successful completion of service .
Terms :
None
Service Areas :
Environment , Entrepreneur/Business , Health , Hunger , Community and Economic Development , Community Outreach .
Skills :
Business/Entrepreneur , Non-Profit Management , Fund raising/Grant Writing , Public Speaking , Writing/Editing , Communications .