Southside CSA is run by volunteers. Members are required to do 12 hours of volunteer work during the season to help run the show.  Signing up implies membership and a commitment to help be responsible for this whole vegetable market in a bar thing run smoothly…

All share families complete 12 hours of volunteer service over the 7 months

The 12 hours of volunteer service are broken down into 3 areas:

+ 4 hours volunteering in support of food security in the neighborhood –either at the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen or at the Southside Mission

+ 3 hours helping at distribution

+5 hours for the Southside CSA community.

At your sign-up appointment, in addition to choosing your share packages and making a deposit, you will schedule your 3 volunteer “shifts”, penciling yourself into the volunteer calendars. We realize that it is hard to know your Summer & Fall schedules in February or March but we appreciate your ability to humor us and help us schedule things.  We have some new people helping coordinate things — a distribution coordinator, a soup kitchen/hunger program coordinator, and our community coordinator.  These people will help facilitate changes and communication about volunteer shifts.

Every share family has to commit to and complete the required hours in each of the following three CSA core values: Community SupportedAgriculture

C: [community]

Building community through 5 volunteer hours in support of our csa, local initiatives, and a liveable city & sustainable neighborhoods

Every share family helps the CSA by volunteering for minor projects, like writing member diarys and other content for our blog, organizing farm visits, or help distribution run smoother. These “shifts” help the organizers plan and execute a wide variety of group events, farm trips, fundraisers, and potlucks. It also provides content and pictures for the Southside CSA blog.

In the past, our members  have organized a plethora of fun community events: we went on group bike rides to Governor’s Island & the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, had a potluck at the Eagle Street Rooftop farm and on Bedford during Williamsburg Walks, hosted cooking demos and harvest dinners, went on field trips to the Greig Farm & MimoMex Farm, and supported several grassroot projects in the neighborhood with volunteer support at fundraisers. We look forward to some more of the same in 2013. At your sign-up appointment you will schedule your community shift.

Available shifts: 

• Member Diary blog post
• Organize day trip to farm (Must be able to rent and drive a passenger van. CSA will pay for it, but you would rent it, etc)
• Man the Info Desk during a distribution. This involves selling swag and answering questions.
• Photograph a distribution
• Organize a potluck event

S:[supported]

Supporting food security in our neighborhood through 4 hours of volunteer service in support of the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen or the Southside Mission

Every share group completes 4 hours of volunteer work supporting CSA projects in a Southside food pantry & a Greenpoint soup kitchen.

In 2010 & 2011, the Southside CSA volunteers washed hundreds of dishes at the soup kitchen, mopped floors, watered and weeded the kitchen garden, carried flats of food, and made lots of delicious food in support of the weekly community meal at the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen. We rocked out specials sauces, sweet fruit compotes, and salty fresh pickles and washed and organized crates and crates of fresh produce. In addition, we delivered hundreds of crates to the Southside Mission Pantry. With our helping hand, these amazing grassroots hunger programs received lots of fresh local organic produce. Tons of shifts to choose from.

A: [agriculture]

Controlling cost through group support of a family farm

Every share family must complete one 3 hour distribution shift from 6-9pm. (Each week there will be 5-6 members working distribution)

We depend on our CSA members to set up our vegetable distribution area at The Woods and to help distribute produce to their fellow members, and then help clean up at the end of the pick-up.