Coordinator of Edible Things

I suppose (5 months after I got here) it's high time I talk a little bit about what I actually do at work, other than the youth cooking classes.  This will probably be the boring post, but it must be done...

First, PACT as an organization operates a few different things.  There's Pyramid Youth Programs, Food Programs, the Green River Thrift Store, and Cottonwoods on the Green, a collection of affordable apartments.  My title within PACT is Food Programs VISTA.  Andrea said recently that she saw a job title for a position similar to mine that was called something like "Edible Schoolyard Coordinator".  I don't deal in schoolyards, but I like the sound of it.  So just call me the Coordinator of Edible Things.  

This is a picture of the community center from last year with some of the youngsters in front of it.

Currently PACT's Food Programs only includes the Green River Food Pantry, which provides supplemental food assistance to Green River residents whose income is below a certain level. The nature of the economy in Green River (seasonal jobs, service and hospitality industry, farming work) mean that 33% of residents live below the poverty line.  That's a pretty high number.

(If it starts to sound like I'm trying to convince you to give money to our programs, it's just because I've written a lot of grants recently.)

So, my job is to expand PACT's Food Programs to include other food-related community initiatives.  These can be broken down into three major categories.

The Silent City Garden Project
This community and youth garden will have space for multiple things.  Some raised beds will be set aside for community members to plant whatever they desire.  A larger area will be the "PACT garden" portion, where PACT staff and volunteers will grow produce to distribute in the community.  Most of the produce will be distributed in a nonprofit food box program, where community members can sign up to receive a food box every week or two weeks at a low price.  Finally, the garden will include space for an expanded youth garden- space for the youngsters to learn, experiment, and grow what they eat.

Last week we got approval from City Council to use this empty lot for the garden space, which we're pretty excited about.  It will be contained either within Space 1 or Space 2.

Workshops
There's not much opportunity for adult education in Green River, so our goal is to help people become more informed about nutrition, cooking, gardening- basically food in general.  The goal is to offer about one workshop per month for gardening and another for cooking.  Thankfully we're able to partner with Utah State University extension services for some of these.

Community Meals
The food pantry is great, but being able to bring people in to sit down together and enjoy a hot meal would be even better.  Especially in the winter when jobs are low.  So, our goal is to provide monthly or bi-weekly hot meals, totally free, possibly combined with other fun activities.  There used to be a hot meal delivery program for the elderly here, and we'd like to get that started back up a couple of times a week.  Both of these meal programs, however, depend on a lot of funds.

Which brings me to what I've really been doing since I've arrived in Green River.  Aside from teaching and planning for cooking classes (which does take a decent amount of time), I've spent most of my time conceptualizing programs and writing grants.  So many grants (well really like 6 or 7, but it feels like more).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, I'll explain it a little.  Some nonprofits fund themselves through their operations, but the rest of us need federal or private funding (or some combination of any of those).  Foundations and organizations who have money to give accept applications from organizations who would like to use that money for programs, operating costs, capital projects, whatever.  All of my potential programs are dependent on receiving money from grantors.  No grants, no money, no programs.

None of this probably sounds very exciting, but it will be more so when things become real.  If they become real.  This may be a small town, but developing and running programs is still not easy.  In fact, it may sometimes be more difficult because of the small number of people and resources there are to draw from.  The worst part of my job is that everything depends on me and my ability to make things happen.  The best part of my job is that everything depends on me and my ability to make things happen.  It's a great and somewhat terrifying learning experience.