A learning opportunity for a hands-on lover of local food!
Santropol Roulant uses food as a vehicle to break social isolation between generations. Creatively and collaboratively, we strengthen and nourish our local community with our novel approaches to active community engagement, youth leadership, food security and social inclusion.
The Roulant's staff is young and dynamic with job descriptions and responsibilities that sometimes exceed their experience. As such, opportunities to learn and grow are key benefits of working at Santropol Roulant. Our working culture supports staff members in developing the skills required to ensure that our collective impact matches organizational and personal aspirations.
About the Food Preservation Program
The Roulant's Food Preservation Program emerged from a desire to reduce waste, develop a robust food cycle model and teach the Roulant community the skills required to preserve seasonally available food. The food we preserve comes from Santropol Roulant's organic farm in Senneville as well as urban fruit harvested by the volunteer collective Les fruits défendus.
The long-term vision for this program is to develop a skilled food preservation community that will have access to healthy, local, preserved food at a variety of price points. The goal for this harvest season, the program's third year, is to maintain production volume, integrate new tools to facilitate production, and allow more volunteers to deepen their understanding of food preservation techniques.
About the position
Santropol Roulant is seeking a motivated learner with strong communication skills to join our team through a Food Preservation Work Share. They will have the opportunity to build their skills in canning, dehydration, lacto-fermentation, and volunteer coordination. Their work will build food preservation skills among members of the Roulant community, reduce food waste and allow the Roulant to increase the volume of local food that we preserve.
This position is offered on the basis of a “work exchange”, where the participant will work 2 days per week in the kitchen in exchange for a learning opportunity and an assortment of pickles, sauces, chutneys, fermented foods & dehydrated fruits and vegetables. We also offer a stipend at the end of the 8 week period (see below for full contract details).
Primary responsibilities include:
- Participating in, and then leading groups of volunteers as they prepare canned, dehydrated and lactofermented food during weekly volunteer canning shifts
- Supporting volunteers' participation in labelling of preserved food products
- Support the Food Preservation Coordinator in organizing and facilitating training workshops
We are looking for candidates with the following skills, interests and experiences:
- Interest in or experience with canning
- Experience in a collaborative or commercial kitchen
- Experience leading, teaching or sharing skills
- Ability to collaborate with and support the participation of people with different levels of ability
- Ability to communicate information effectively
- Strong verbal communication: French & English
- Previous experience working in a collaborative setting is an asset
Contract Details:
We ask that the participant commit to working 2 days per week: Wednesdays from 10 am to 7 pm and Fridays from 11:30 am to 6 pm, from early July to the end of August. Flexibility with regards to scheduling around special events or workshops is helpful, but not required.
In exchange, Santropol Roulant offers a generous volume of canned or dehydrated local fruits and veggies for each week worked (approximate market value: $60). After 8 weeks of work, the successful candidate will also receive a stipend of $480.
As an organization that works to break social isolation and bring people together across barriers, Santropol Roulant recognizes that people who experience structural oppression and marginalization have a lot to offer our community. People of colour, those recently arrived from other countries, people with disabilities, women, twospirited and queer people, trans people, and other candidates who experience marginalization are strongly encouraged to apply and to self-identify in their cover letter.
Our primary office space is step-free and has an accessible washroom, but our second floor and basement are not wheelchair accessible. This position in particular will require the candidate to lift and carry heavy loads and work above a stove. Please contact Stephanie if you have any questions about the accessibility of our work area or your participation in an interview process.
To apply, please drop off or email your CV and a short letter describing yourself and your interest in this position to Stephanie Childs at rh at santropolroulant.org before Monday May 9th at 9am. For more information, contact Stephanie at 514.284.9335, write to stephanie at santropolroulant.org visit santropolroulant.org or drop by our office at 111 Roy est.
Santropol Roulant's peri-urban farm in Senneville provides fresh, local and organic vegetables for our meals-onwheels service, our weekly organic baskets and our neighbourhood market, and plays an important role in public education by connecting urbanites with the source of their food. The volume of production has been increasing steadily over the past few years and the food preservation program grew out of a concern for making the most of delicious organic produce that might otherwise go to waste. Our Roulant volunteers are pleased to be learning how to eat and put up food during the harvest season! Food preservation is a key skill for any Montrealer interested in eating locally.
SOURCE: Santropol Roulant
