Lead educational farm field trips for elementary school students.
About Community Food Education (CFE)
CFE envisions a city where people have equal access to healthy and culturally appropriate food. We work with and in communities to grow and share food that’s fresh and nourishing. CFE fosters community connections through gardening education, sustainable food production, environmental stewardship, and raising awareness about good nutrition and food justice. We also fight hunger by giving seeds and gardening resources to people living on low incomes – and we support backyard gardeners to donate fruits and vegetables they grow in King County.
About Marra Farm
Located in the Duwamish River Valley, Marra Farm comprises 8.7 acres of preserved farmland in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood – home to both ethnically diverse immigrant communities and a high concentration of commercial industry. Solid Ground’s CFE program, one of many community partners who steward the land, operates a Giving Garden that does education work while growing food for the community.
Field Trip Educator
Help lead hands-on educational farm field trips for elementary school students and support students in garden-related activities. Topics include the journey of food, exploring the soil, cooking, nutrition, creatures like bees and worms, and food justice.
Time Commitment
Field trips can be onetime or a weekly series (three to five weeks) and occur almost exclusively during school hours from April to October, most often on Wednesdays. Time commitment for a field trip is usually 2.5 hours. We’re looking for volunteers who are interested and able to commit for the farm season.
Training
Volunteers must attend Solid Ground’s New Volunteer Orientation and complete the volunteer application process. Field Trip Educators will be oriented to the farm site before scheduling their first field trip.
Please use this self-screening tool before every in-person training or volunteer session to keep yourself and others safe:
Qualifications
- Must be at least 18 years old; email volunteers@solid-ground.org to find volunteer roles for people under 18
- Experience working with elementary school students
- Interest or background in gardening, cooking, or nutrition (no formal education required)
- Interest in teaching outside during variable weather
- Ability to share information about food in a nuanced, nonjudgmental way that centers food access, anti-racism, and anti-oppression
- Ability to give and receive feedback clearly and directly
- Ability to follow directions and work collaboratively with staff and other volunteers
- Ability to work with openness, compassion, and understanding while working with staff, volunteers, and students with a variety of racial, cultural, and class backgrounds, lifestyles, and sexual orientations
