Edible Schoolyard NYC Spring Garden Volunteer Program
Edible Schoolyard NYC (ESYNYC) is on a mission to make edible education accessible for every child in New York City. We believe edible education—where kids experience hands-on cooking and gardening—helps kids gain the skills to contribute to a healthy and sustainable food system for us all. Edible education helps students build healthy relationships with food, their community, and their environment. Together with public school communities across the city, we’re building spaces for kids to flourish.
Volunteer Position Description
The Spring Garden Volunteer Program is a weekly commitment that runs from Tuesday, April 1 to Tuesday, May 20 2025 at P.S. 216 in Gravesend, Brooklyn. We ask volunteers to make sure they will attend at least 6 sessions over those 8 weeks. Working under the supervision of our Garden Management team, volunteers help with garden maintenance; cultivate food grown for programming; and model positive behavior in the teaching garden, a place of wonder and respect for the environment and the community. Volunteers have the opportunity to develop and share skills related to growing organic food in an urban environment, and will work alongside equally enthusiastic advocates of edible education. This is not a teaching position.
Responsibilities include:
- Participating in composting, mulching, irrigation, planting, weeding, and other routine garden tasks;
- Assisting in maintenance of garden facilities and equipment;
- Harvesting in preparation for a weekly farmstand that takes place on Friday afternoons.
Duration
The Fall Garden Volunteer Program is a 3-month unpaid program, which takes place on Tuesdays from 10am to 1pm. The program begins April 1 and concludes May 20, but volunteers are welcome to rejoin for the following Summer season if they’d like.
Additional requirements:
- Volunteers must be at least 18 years old
- Volunteers must be comfortable being around children
- All new volunteers must complete and pass a background check with NYC Public Schools (paid for by ESYNYC)
- All new volunteers must complete a mandatory sexual abuse prevention training
Getting to PS 216 in Gravesend, Brooklyn
PS 216 Arturo Toscanini is located at 350 Avenue X, Brooklyn, NY 11223. The location is accessible via the F/N/Q trains and the B1/B4 buses.
Interested applicants should send an email with “Spring Garden Volunteer Program” in the subject line to df@esynyc.org, and let us know why you are interested in the opportunity. No experience necessary, but we’d love to hear if you have any! No phone calls or drop-ins, please.