Director of Agriculture

About the Organization: Launched in 2020, Cultivate Charlottesville aims to create a healthy and equitable future – personally, in community, and across systems and structures. We do this through our three core program areas of: City Schoolyard Gardens (CSG); Urban Agriculture Collective (UAC); and Food Justice Network (FJN). We believe that working together to grow gardens, share food and power, and advocate for just systems cultivates a healthy community for all.

Program Overview: City Schoolyard Garden engages youth in Charlottesville City Schools by collaborating with teachers to host classes for experiential learning in school growing spaces. The middle and high school gardens host their own urban farming classes that Cultivate supports at varying levels throughout the school year and summer. Urban Agriculture Collective works to address community food insecurity by involving local community members in a healthy food system. UAC currently operates 3 food production sites, which total over .5 acres. These sites produce roughly 10,000 of produce, which is distributed during weekly community market days in public and subsidized housing neighborhoods across Charlottesville.

Scope of Work: Cultivate Charlottesville is seeking applications for the Director of Agriculture position working primarily with both the City Schoolyard Garden and Urban Agriculture Collective programs. This position is responsible for planning, managing, and supporting a bountiful agriculture presence in growing spaces at Charlottesville City Schools and across the community. The Director of Agriculture is responsible for supporting the overall operations and logistics coordination of CSG’s school garden plots and UAC’s urban agriculture sites and community market days. This includes, but is not limited to seasonal crop planning, seedling propagation, coordination of volunteer work days, maintenance of irrigation lines, market day operations, and community engagement activities.

Please note this is Charlottesville-based, grant-funded position.

Position Description

The Urban Agriculture Director of Agriculture’s core functions include:

• Work as part of a team to grow fruits and vegetables and sustainably manage the land at Cultivate’s urban agriculture sites
• Develop seasonal crop plans for fruits and vegetables that incorporate sustainable agricultural practices
• Manage logistics for planting seed starts for production in our greenhouse and seed room
• Supervise three Urban Agriculture Collective staff across multiple production sites
• Manage project budgets including tracking expenses, purchasing supplies, and submitting vendor invoices in a timely manner
• Track data such as harvest yields, volunteers, and distribution logs
• Mentor and teach volunteers and interns, assessing their skill level and engaging them in all aspects of production and distribution appropriate with their aptitudes and abilities
• Actively engage with CSG and UAC program partners including community outreach, coordinating volunteer workdays, working with seasonal food justice interns and community advocates.
• Participate in community events to build relationships, increase equity, and enhance program goals
• As part of a team, regularly engage in community outreach to ensure that community members are invited to participate and volunteer
• Contribute as part of the Cultivate Charlottesville team with organizational activities such as community events, social media and community outreach, evaluation tracking, lesson design, etc.
• Work to transform racial inequities in all aspects of your work with strategic and intentional action
• Cultivate health and environmental sustainability in all program strategy and implementation
• Complete other responsibilities as agreed upon with the Co-Executive Directors

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience with sustainable urban agriculture growing practices
• Staff supervision and management experience
• Knowledge of the Charlottesville community and issues surrounding social inequities
• Experience with hands-on seedling care, field preparation and tillage, equipment maintenance, direct seeding, transplanting, irrigation system use and maintenance, trellis construction and maintenance, cultivation and weed management, mulching, sowing and managing cover crops, monitoring plant health, crop residue management, harvesting and preparing crops for distribution, and other farm management activities.
• Demonstrated knowledge of program planning and implementation
• Ability to take initiative to learn new skills and step into job responsibilities
• Familiarity with data entry and tracking with spreadsheets
• Commitment to advancing food equity programs
• Computer competence including MS Office Software (specifically Word and Excel), Google-based applications, and design and online tools.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills

Ideal Candidate has:

• At least 5 years experience in an urban agriculture-related field or a bachelor’s degree
• 5-8 years of hands-on urban agriculture or equivalent experience
• Excellent research, communication, and organization skills as well as the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities with flexibility and alignment to our mission
• Experience working in diverse communities with a clear understanding of multi-cultural contexts and racial equity practices, with a specific preference for experience in Charlottesville’s neighborhoods
• Value the self-determination of community members to address issues around food equity
• Transportation and a good driving record
• Exceptional references

All Cultivate staff are responsible to uphold values and practices that support reaching our mission with integrity and which utilize our core organizational strategies including: engage and educate youth in nature through garden based experiences; grow and share food to enhance access, connectivity and health; collaborate with partners and community; dismantle racial inequities and actively build equity; amplify community power, leadership and action; mobilize with partners for policy change; cultivate sustainability, equity, capacity, and leadership.

Compensation: The Director of Agriculture is a full-time position with a salary range of $68,000 –$80,000. As with all full-time staff, the Director of Agriculture will receive a generous leave policy and robust benefits including health, dental, vision, life insurance, and an IRA savings match program.

generous leave policy and robust benefits including health, dental, vision, life insurance, and an IRA savings match program.