Founded in 2011, The Urban Canopy is pioneering the local food cycle to create a more sustainable and equitable food system in Chicago. We are growers, distributors, composters and community members who seek to positively impact our city’s environment, people’s health, and local economy. We strive to make healthy produce accessible to all, reduce the miles fresh food travels, keep food waste out of landfills, and create and maintain local jobs.

To achieve this, we structure our business into seven Branches: Compost Club, Indoor Farm, Outdoor Farm, Local Unified CSA (LUCSA), Farmers Markets, non-local Distribution and Processing. These branches each work in their own way to change the way our food is grown, distributed, and wasted.

We operate according to B-Corp principles with a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. In service of the environment we focus on reducing food waste, food miles, and encouraging and enabling sustainable farming practices. In service of nutrition we make healthy produce accessible and available year round. We work for food access in order to empower our communities to build towards a healthier food system. All this is achieved through local, self-sustaining, meaningful jobs, constantly growing to meet the demand for a local, ethical, sustainable full-cycle food system in Chicago.

Summary: 

The Urban Canopy is a young and diverse organisation working on cutting edge issues at the intersection of urban agriculture and sustainable food. We are seeking a skilled Harvest Crew member for our outdoor farm to help support our vision: to create a sustainable and equitable food system by way of environmental stewardship, local job creation, healthy-living initiatives, and community building. 

We are seeking a harvest crew member at our 2-acre outdoor farm in Auburn-Gresham. The ideal candidate has at least a year of harvest farming experience along with a commitment to environmental stewardship, local job creation, healthy-living initiatives, and community building. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Efficient fieldwork including harvest, wash, and post-harvest pack
• Assist with general farm maintenance such as planting, hand tool weeding, irrigation repairs, and bed building
• Follow protocol for labeling, storage and internal distribution of produce
• Reliably track farm data according to Urban Canopy’s records systems
• Work with other branches (compost collection, farmers market, CSA packing, etc)

Qualifications:

• At least a year of intensive production farming experience, ideally small/organic
• Able to lift 75+ lbs and work outdoors in all Chicago weather
• Hard worker, self driven, able to give and receive instructions critically
• Comfortable with the ambiguity and flexibility common to a budding new business
• Able to shift gears smoothly and maintain momentum on multiple tasks
• Able to keep focused and practise responsive, effective communication
• Commitment to quality, healthy produce and food access justice

Scheduling Information:

This position is seasonal. During the growing season, the harvest crew member will work Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday  harvest.  Summer shift start and end times may vary, but  are typically between 6am-2pm.