Good Food Jobs is a gastro-job search tool, designed to link people looking for meaningful food work with the businesses that need their energy, enthusiasm, and intellect. We post opportunities with farmers and food artisans, policy makers and purveyors, retailers and restaurateurs, economists, ecologists, and more.
the gastrognomes is a blog for food lovers who want to put their passions to work. We profile the most interesting, engaging, and unlikely food professionals that we find, and we publish them here to inspire you.
ON THE WEB
Our job search engine is a work in progress. Check out these and other web developments on goodfoodjobs.com :
We're still hard at work on the mobile site. Stay tuned for that and more developments next week!
Do you have a recommendation? Constructive criticism? Or have you noticed a glitch? Let us know. And stay tuned for more updates. We're always scheming.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We'll be announcing a few next week. Stay tuned!
For more information about Good Food Jobs related events - past, present, and future - visit goodfoodjobs.com/events.
NICE THINGS PEOPLE SAY
I just wanted to thank you for your site. I found the job I'm at now through GFJ. Keep up the good work!
- Edgar, GFJ Success Story
Thanks for creating this awesome resource... A few more lives changed for the better thanks to you folks.
- Mike, GFJ User
The Good Food Jobs Get Together was a phenomenal experience. It was my first experience at networking - being a shy person I have avoided it. If I had known, I wouldn't have come. But it turned out to be the best thing I could have done and by far the best experience of the day. I got the grasp of networking and feel I can do it again no problem. It was hands-on learning for sure.
- Joanna, Job Seeker
We are so pleased to be of service.
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We strive hard to live by the advice that we dole out on a weekly basis. Over the past few months, we've been saying, 'Get out of your comfort zone'. Our comfort zone happens to be behind our computer, where we can carefully craft responses, and take the time and energy to get things 'just right'.
Last week we co-hosted the Good Food Jobs Get Together at the Just Food Conference, which took us out of our comfort zone, and into the same room with hundreds of other folks interested in food and sustainability.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because we partnered with Just Food last year to create a traditional job fair. But this year we wanted to take what we learned from that event and do something completely different. We re-envisioned it for the sake of the job seekers, having learned that the obvious fixation on meeting employers was actually limiting the focus to only those jobs that happened to be available at any given moment. Our goal was uninhibited networking, with a classic agenda: keep building the community.
When we renamed the event and re-wrote the description, we didn't anticipate the confusion that ensued. To our surprise - over and over and over again - people kept asking us about the Job Fair, telling us how excited they were about the Job Fair, and inquiring as to what to bring to the Job Fair. And so, despite all of our explanations to the contrary, we just weren't sure what to expect come the night of the event.
Was it perfect? Far from it. But we learned a whole lot, which we hope to share with you. In addition to a lot of positive feedback from folks who were happily surprised by the opportunity to make new connections, there were others who just couldn't overcome the disappointment that there were no tables with employers lined up behind them.
All of this equates to the fact that we will be doing a lot of work to figure out how to better communicate the purpose and intent of events that we hold in the future. In the meantime, here are a few tips we've drawn up for job seekers, based on what we learned from the Get Together:
Read beyond the title page:
We are not defined only as job seekers or job posters, employees or employers. Life is more complex. We've met job seekers who found success on our site and went on to post openings at their new place of business. We've met job posters who are now looking for new work. We've met people whose work we idolize, only to learn that they sought us out for advice. And we've met perfect strangers whose connections to fame were revealed only after they walked away from us. The grounds are ever-shifting, and we stand by the fact that the best route to successful job seeking is by building relationships. You just never know when you might learn something remarkably useful from an unexpected source.
Stop looking for answers and find tools:
We've started to notice that a tremendous amount of folks are approaching the job search like cramming for a test. They want 'the answers' (i.e. access to employers, the tricks to landing a great job as quickly as possible, the secret to finding a job that looks good on paper) instead of learning the material (utilizing all of your resources, building lasting relationships, and taking short term jobs in support of a long term career goal). We're here to remind you that while cramming may be successful sometimes, it is also risky, and it definitely isn't the healthiest route. Take a deep breath and soak it all in. You'll get there eventually, and you might even be well rested when you reach your destination.
Redefine what 'boss' means to you:
Just as the the concept of a successful career is evolving - from steady, long term commitments in which the word 'fulfillment' never so much as crosses one's mind - so too is the concept of a boss as a hierarchical, unreachable, all powerful voice from above. It may seem counterintuitive, even radical - but your employer may in fact turn out to be someone you can really talk to. Someone you can be open and honest with. Someone who understands your goals and skills and passion for food better than you could ever have hoped. We are not so naive as to believe that this happens all the time, in every work situation. But we do firmly believe it is a goal that can be achieved, if you make it your business to do so. And it starts with your own open, honest communication about who you are and what you want in your job.
Cheers,
Taylor & Dorothy
Co-Founders, Good Food Jobs
ANNOUNCING THE RECIPIENTS OF THE
GOOD FOOD JOBS SCHOLARSHIPS
We're pleased to announce the following recipients of the Good Food Jobs Scholarships to Sterling College's Vermont's Table (Sustainable Food Systems) program:
$5,000 SCHOLARSHIP
Rachel Jones
It is my goal to learn how to make everything that I can by hand. And I have learned that none of it is re-inventing the wheel. It is all re-learning skills and techniques that have been lost in the last couple generations, and I have enjoyed this challenging re-education. From working with ruminants, to composting, to canning pumpkin, my focus is on understanding how our everyday choices affect our environment and culture, and what power each individual has to change oppressive systems. I truly hope Vermont’s Table will help me strengthen my foundation in the skills I am looking to master, as well as my understanding of the issues at hand on the big-picture level. And with that help, I hope to become a better teacher and mentor to others.
$2,000 SCHOLARSHIPS
Jessica Phillips
I want to bring together what I have been cooking up for nearly a decade; and improve as a leader in my community while continuing to grow as an advocate and educator. I will use the skills and information learned at this program to continue my food advocacy work within my local community, with attention to the bigger picture as well. I want to help return power to the people by reminding them of their connection to the earth and others, through food-based education and events that encourage sustainable food production and local economic health.
Kelly Berry
I’ve dedicated the past several years of my adult life to issues that are at the core of Vermont’s Table program: building better food systems, bringing sustainable and delicious food to a wider group of people and working to build a community of like-minded people around food and growing. I’ve poured years of passion into these endeavors, much of them unpaid. But I do it because I am passionate about these issues.
Thank you to everyone who took the time and energy to apply. It was nearly impossible to choose.
the GASTRO.GNOMES BLOG
Tama Matsuoka
Meadows + More
Take a look at the website for Tama's company, Meadows + More, and you'll be blown away, as we were, by the beauty and simplicity of it. Nature and food are both simple and complex - a dichotomy that makes them so irresistibly, unspeakably divine. What we find most inspiring of all is how Tama found a way to turn that into her livelihood. Read More
GOOD FOOD JOB HIGHLIGHTS
and over 700 other active jobs, too . . . see the full website for the latest.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER INTERNSHIP
Heritage Radio Network
Brooklyn, NY
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Challah for Hunger
Anywhere
FARM CREW LEADER AND APPRENTICESHIPS
Backyard Gardens, LLC
Joseph, OR
see more good food jobs at goodfoodjobs.com
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