URBAN FARM VOLUNTEER LEARNING PROGRAM
🌾 Join Our Volunteer Learning Program
This full season learning experience will immerse you into the world of ecological farming. It is a practical hands-on experience where you exchange your labour and commitment for our instruction, supervision and mutual commitment. You will learn sustainable methods of tending to the land, harvesting & processing vegetables, preparing beds, tilling, seeding, & more.
Located conveniently in the Marpole neighborhood, the farm’s proximity to public transportation offers a sustainable and easy option for visitors and volunteers to access green space, and to take a break from bustling city life.
We welcome all people of different skill and knowledge levels!
Interested in volunteering in our therapeutic gardens programs? More info here
Interested in our drop-in volunteering? More info here
Interested in volunteering in other capacities (e.g. programming, teaching, hosting)? Reach out to us here.
What does a typical day with the team look like?
Our volunteer program runs for 30 weeks from March until the end of October, with several weeks off for vacation.
Each shift runs for 6hrs 9am-3pm, with a break for lunch in between.
Usually we start the day together, catching up a bit on our weeks, looking at the tasks ahead for the day. We work rain or shine 🌧️☀️ , so volunteers are reminded to dress prepared. Depending on the field day and what tasks are involved, it could look like seeding a bed or two in the morning, weeding and cultivating the soil, or harvesting veggies for the CSA.
We then have a team lunch in the office (aka under the blue spruce tree) where we talk shop, rest from our labour, and enjoy each others company. Since our volunteers come on the same day every week, they get to build up relationships with their fellow coworkers.
In the afternoon, we could be washing CSA bins, flipping beds, transplanting seedlings, or doing some indoor seeding.
Farming involves a lot of repetitive tasks and movements. We try our best to switch things up every now and then for each volunteer day, but it could also look like 3 straight weeks of spreading compost onto a bed and transplanting seedlings just sayin 👀 So remember to streeeetch!
Through the program, volunteers will learn all the ins and outs of a market garden operation. You will gain skills like: How to prepare beds, seed, transplant, harvesting & processing; ability to prepare own garden and trouble shoot problems as they arise, seed, plant, insect and disease observation & identification, & more.
At the end the day we finish by cleaning tools, and tidying up the farm before we leave.
TESTIMONIALS
"I picked up a lot of new food-growing skills and knowledge over the summer… I feel much more confident in my ability to keep applying these skills and doing my own research to expand this knowledge”
"I learned a lot about how to use the organic farming techniques in my own home garden,; got to spend time in a beautiful and relaxing environment; and got to work with a wonderful group of people."
"Sharing my Tuesdays with the insects, birds, small furry friends, and other people in the garden has been a wonderfully meaningful experience… I am grateful for this experience, to sink my hands in the soil, and to reconnect to something greater."
