Garden Leader | Friendship Gardens Charlotte

Be a Garden Leader

Aug. 7, 2010

Love to garden or want to learn how for a worthy cause?

Friendship Gardens, a Slow Food Charlotte Initiative, needs volunteer Garden Leaders to fulfill our mission of developing a network of sustainable community gardens across the Charlotte area to grow healthy food for Friendship Trays, Charlotte’s largest meals on wheels provider.

Who we need

We need several enthusiastic volunteers who can lead groups interested in maintaining a community garden site. A green thumb is not necessary. We will provide you with all the support and training you need through a series of group gardening sessions. We ask only that you are willing, able and excited about sharing the message of community gardening while feeding the hungry the best food available.

What’s involved

Help set up a Garden: Leaders will meet with an interested group (examples are schools or churches) and work with them to develop a garden on their property that will join the Friendship Gardens network. Leaders will work from a checklist of provided topics to help the group make the best decisions for them. Specific examples include selecting a proper site and gardening style and helping to schedule initial garden dig days with the group and Slow Food volunteers.

Help Maintain a Garden: Each Garden Leader will only work with one garden at a time (unless you beg and plead for more responsibility!) The pace of the garden planning process will be largely determined by the schedule of the group that you are working with. Meetings will be set by you and the group, as needed. If your schedule allows, we also encourage leaders to occasionally host/direct volunteer groups in other gardens across the network. Once the garden is growing, Leaders will help track volunteer work hours and schedule pick-up or delivery of harvested food for Friendship Trays.

Support and Time Commitment: You will work with the rest of the Friendship Gardens team and can reach out for support at any time. All training and materials will be provided. Depending on the size of the garden and the volunteer group you lead, the time commitment each month should only be a few hours.

This is an opportunity to put your communication and leadership skills to work for a worthwhile mission. We need you and appreciate your efforts to spread the joy of sustainable gardening and sustaining the health of the underprivileged in our community.

Want to Know More?

For questions or for more information, please e-mail Henry Owen at Henry@slowfoodcharlotte.org or Carol Adams at Carol@slowfoodcharlotte.org.

Friendship Gardens Charlotte
Creating local, renewable nutritious food resources for meals-on-wheels recipients
An Initiative of Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Trays, Inc.

Friendship Trays, 2401-A Distribution St. Charlotte, NC 28203 voice 704-333-9229 fax 704-333-5947
Meals-on-wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Delivering, in a caring and friendly manner, balanced meals to individuals in this community
who are unable, because of age or infirmity, to obtain and prepare their own meal
Friendship Trays is a 501(c)(3) organization. Employer ID #56-1201496. Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license
are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-807-2000. The license is not an endorsement by the State.