Volunteer

Can’t make it to the garden regularly? Volunteers are welcome to drop in whenever they are available without an ongoing commitment.

Want to organize a one time service project with a group? Contribute in a way that works for you. Contact your nearest garden to start the dialogue.

Apprentice at a Garden

As a Garden Apprentice, you will work side by side with an experienced, educated farmer/gardener in a UFC garden. You will learn what it takes to grow fruits and vegetables in the Pacific NW from planning in the Spring to cover cropping in the Fall. This is a free, hands-on education and we hope that you walk away with the confidence you need to grow your own food and hopefully, share what you have learned with the next generation of gardeners. In addition, you will earn one barter buck for each hour that you work in the garden which can be exchanged for the organic produce that we grow as a collective.

We will always accept applications. If there is not a spot today, you will be placed on a waiting list.

Apply here

Manage a Garden

We are actively seeking garden managers that are passionate about localizing the food supply and confident in their ability to pass along what they know about dirt and plants to the next generation of gardeners.

Garden managers are the life-blood of the collective. Each manager is responsible for running garden, which includes designing the garden, planning projects, hosting weekly work parties, recording each volunteer’s hours, and bringing produce to the Barter Market. Each garden manager is also responsible for creating a curriculum for and mentoring an apprentice. While the garden manager is expected to be autonomous, UFC administrators work diligently to raise funds for operating costs of your garden and find interested people to volunteer during work parties.

Share Land

If you have land that you would like to see converted into a neighborhood food garden, consider sharing it with the collective! We are actively seeking land. The benefits of sharing your land include:

• You may qualify for a property tax exemption.
• You will no longer incur the costs of maintaining your land. We take full responsibility for the installation and up-keep of the garden.
• You will receive enough produce barter shares to shop at our market all summer (June 1st-Oct 31st) for your local, organic fruits and veggies.

We carry liability insurance for your protection, although we are happy to report that no one has ever been hurt in a UFC garden. We also borrow land on a season by season basis. However, if you fervently share our values and support our mission, consider entrusting your land to Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) to insure that it is not developed in the future and is used for the purposes of education and research in sustainable agriculture in perpetuity.