Hello Tom,

As the president of the York neighborhood association, we wanted to let you know of the gardening volunteer opportunities at your nearby schools. Could you please spread the word? Common Threads' AmeriCorps Food Educators have been hard at work planting school gardens for production, and volunteers make it possible for the bounty of the season to go to families in need and kids to return to robust gardens in the fall.

Here is a list of your neighborhood schools and the links to their sign-ups. Also, I've listed the Food Educator at each school that you can contact with questions.

  You may sign-up for any school on our website. Our sign up genius pages offer five, 2-hour time slots every day from now until September 15th for each school. The commitment is super flexible - you may sign up for as many time slots as they would like, or just sign-up for one if you're busy. You may also sign-up to help at multiple schools. We highly encourage you to sign up for the same time slot every week as it helps us feel relaxed to know the garden is getting cared for regularly. We especially need volunteers during August as our current AmeriCorps members will be ending service at the end of July and our new team won't start until the end of summer. Volunteers can be 16+ and younger children can volunteer with an adult from their household.   

This year, with the pandemic going on, we have some extra precautions that we are taking to maintain social distancing, so we would like all volunteers to read and follow our best practices before signing-up. 

After you sign up, the food educator at each school will email you about garden access and tasks. You may request an in-person and socially-distanced orientation from them, if you would like. If you have any questions or need any assistance with signing up, you may email me at margo@commonthreadsfarm.org.

We hope to see you (socially distanced, of course) in the garden!