The Food and Farming Apprenticeship Program is a community-centered educational pathway that aims to support food sovereignty, a symbiotic relationship with the earth, and community empowerment. This program is made possible through a collaboration between Peace Gardens & Market, Bountiful Cities, Patchwork Alliance, Root Cause Farm, and ASAP. Through a combination of classes, fieldwork, and mentorship, the apprentices enrolled in this program can expect to gain a broad understanding of the various aspects of the regional food system.
The goal is to engage individuals who typically have less access to traditional education and face barriers to employment, especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and applicants with low-wealth backgrounds. Apprentices will participate in multiple food system pathways, which can lead to a livelihood in food and farming while learning about food justice, sovereignty, self-empowerment, and employment opportunities in both the non-profit and private sectors.
The program runs for 30 weeks and apprentices are compensated at a rate of $20/hour for 20 hours a week (days and time may vary with mentor, site, and instructor availability). At the end of the 30-week program, the apprentices are expected to commit to 2 paid hours per week for 11 weeks of continued mentorship.
Applications are now open for 2023 with the program running March – October
The apprenticeship is part-time (20 hours/week), 3 apprentice positions are available
Apply Here
The apprenticeship is part-time (20 hours/week), 3 apprentice positions are available
Apply Here
This Program is possible due to the support from our funders:
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Pilot Year, 2022
You spoke and we listened. After years of planning and community assessments, the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program launched on March 14, 2022, with three apprentices. For this pilot year, we focused on hammering out the curriculum and gathering our instructors as well as the sites that the apprentices will visit to gain hands-on experiences and skills.
Apprentices started the year attending the Come to the Table Conference hosted by Rural Advancement Foundation International. That opened up some good discussion on the ideas of “Land Hunger,” food security, and the USDA’s hand in how food systems function. Land Hunger was a term used to describe the drive freedmen had to acquire land that they had previously been barred from. They would squat on the land and take any means necessary to acquire it. Land is integral to growing food. Access to land is one of the number one barriers that new emerging farmers continue to face. It is how wealth has been built in this country for generations. Land is also how we determine rights, voting, and the like via districting. And with more and more farmland being developed and turned into subdivisions, farmers and those who want a secure food future are becoming more land hungry.
This brings us to the idea of Food Security. One speaker defined food security as, “All people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy lifestyle.” This is a very in-depth concept of the term and brings into question how many individuals can truly say they are food secure. With this definition, the numbers for food insecurity are staggering. The apprenticeship program is designed to help foster more food security in our community, not only by giving community members the skills needed to grow food in their areas but also by sharing these skills throughout the community.
You spoke and we listened. After years of planning and community assessments, the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program launched on March 14, 2022, with three apprentices. For this pilot year, we focused on hammering out the curriculum and gathering our instructors as well as the sites that the apprentices will visit to gain hands-on experiences and skills.
Apprentices started the year attending the Come to the Table Conference hosted by Rural Advancement Foundation International. That opened up some good discussion on the ideas of “Land Hunger,” food security, and the USDA’s hand in how food systems function. Land Hunger was a term used to describe the drive freedmen had to acquire land that they had previously been barred from. They would squat on the land and take any means necessary to acquire it. Land is integral to growing food. Access to land is one of the number one barriers that new emerging farmers continue to face. It is how wealth has been built in this country for generations. Land is also how we determine rights, voting, and the like via districting. And with more and more farmland being developed and turned into subdivisions, farmers and those who want a secure food future are becoming more land hungry.
This brings us to the idea of Food Security. One speaker defined food security as, “All people, at all times, having physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy lifestyle.” This is a very in-depth concept of the term and brings into question how many individuals can truly say they are food secure. With this definition, the numbers for food insecurity are staggering. The apprenticeship program is designed to help foster more food security in our community, not only by giving community members the skills needed to grow food in their areas but also by sharing these skills throughout the community.
