Food for The Ville Internship
Food for The Ville Internship Position Description
Food for The Ville is a collaboration of Antioch in The Ville Community Development Association, d.b.a. Hope in The Ville (HITV), God’s Helping Hand (GHH), The Antioch Baptist Church (TABC), and Sumner High School (SHS), and seeks graduate student workers and/or internships, starting in May 2025 for summer.
Position Summary
The Ville Neighborhood in the City of St. Louis is an area with a rich African American history, that has been challenged with population decline and a lack of local food resources. HITV is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to partner with other agencies/businesses to empower individuals to have a compassionate desire for justice and equality for all humanity that will be fruitful for the community. The purpose is to teach, demonstrate and provide resources that are life-changing, meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of people who are homeless or in need of hope. HITV collaborates with GHH, whose mission is: “Offers a helping hand and a spiritual lift to those in need in our community”. These missions survive from donations from area Christian churches and small grants to provide weekly breakfasts serving 85-100 (on hold during and after COVID) and a weekly food pantry serving 50-60 families. These two entities are collaborating with TABC, a historic African American congregation, in Food for the Ville’s mission to:
- Establish a commissary kitchen and community space within TABC to support small business development and learning about nutritious foods. The food pantry and community breakfast will continue in this renovated space, offering healthy food classes, food vocational opportunities, and preparation of hot meals for the community.
- Develop community gardens and orchards utilizing surrounding vacant lots owned by TABC to produce nutritious foods for community distribution. Produce is available to the community and the food pantry. The garden engages environmental science students and staff at nearby historic Sumner High School.
- Leverage the projects in a garden market at Sumner HS’s pavilion distributing garden produce and foods for sale prepared in the commissary kitchen to support small businesses providing food for the area.
- Led by this collaborative team from the partner organizations, HITV seeks to promote access to food and nutrition to this disadvantaged St. Louis neighborhood.
- This internship would support the collaborative team in preparing grant applications to support the efforts of Food for The Ville; working with the partners, including high school students in developing the project goals; designing and implementing community outreach and media activities to promote knowledge about, access to and use of the commissary kitchen, the community garden, and the garden market; and using process evaluation techniques to improve the project.
Position Description
- Become familiar with project partners and leadership team
- Assist with preparation of grant applications
- Lead development and execution of a communication plan
- Assist with networking activities to identify and engage community partner organizations and agencies
- Recruit and sustain volunteers to help with the garden and orchard
- Recruit start-up food businesses to use the commissary kitchen
- Adapt/design and manage distribution of media and social media materials
- Design and implement activity tracking and reporting protocols
Desired Qualifications
- Experience with community engagement and outreach activities
- Background with media and social media writing, graphic design and distribution
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Detail-oriented, with good problem-solving skills
- Self-motivated, responsive, and extremely reliable
- This position requires ability to travel to community events in St. Louis City’s The Ville Neighborhood
Application Process
- Please submit resume and cover letter and available start date to Ms. Jeanine Arrighi, MS, MPPA, at jeaninelearns@gmail.com. Jeanine is the former bureau chief of environmental health services, retired from the City of St. Louis Department of Health. She is a board member of Hope in The Ville and member of Unity Lutheran Church that supports funding of the position. She will serve as preceptor.
- The internship will pay a stipend of $4,800 for 320 hours payable on quarterly milestones.