Summer Internships | Snowville, Shagbark and More Food in the Community

Interested in an internship with Community Food Initiatives, Rural Action with Sustainable Agriculture, Snowville Creamery, or Shagbark Seed & Mill?

New for Summer 2015, the Food Studies theme offers an internship and seminar on How Food Works in the Community.

CAS 4410 Seminar in How Food Works in the Community

The course provides a discussion forum for students who wish to understand how food works in the community. No prior background or training in food studies is required. The seminar will comprise a broad set of issues connected to food security, production, processing, marketing, distribution, consumption, composting, food choices, and food culture.

CAS 4911 Internship in How Food Works in the Community

The course provides opportunities for students who wish to understand how food works in the community. No prior background or training in food studies is required. Students work with local organizations on a broad set of issues connected to food security, production, processing, marketing, distribution, consumption, composting, food choices, and food culture.

Internship Opportunities

For more details on each location, contact Dr. Theresa Moran, Food Studies faculty leader, at morant@ohio.edu.

Community Food Initiatives

Community Food Initiatives in Athens, OH, is a dynamic, membership-based non-profit organization that serves Athens and surrounding counties with the intention of combating food insecurity by not only making fresh and whole foods available widespread, but also by providing the space and education for people to grow their own food and to learn how to prepare it. CFI pursues these goals through three main program initiatives; the Donation Station, Community Gardens, and School Gardens.

The Food Studies intern would have the opportunity to work in tandem with AmeriCorps members, other interns and volunteers in the grassroots running of these established programs. There would also be opportunities for the intern to develop a proposal for a more individual, interest-focused project that they would initiate for CFI.

Intern positions could look like any of the following:

• Donation Station: Assisting at the Athens Farmers Market as well as the Chesterhill Produce Auction to ask for and accept donations in the form of food or finance. Also helping with food distribution and coordinating with food pantries in the area.
• Community Gardens and Workshops: Assisting with the planning and maintaining of CFI community gardens. This includes weeding, working with compost, gardener meetings, pest and infection control, tool maintenance, etc. Could also be involved in assisting with workshops and various seed saving projects.
• School Gardens: Assisting and working with the CFI School Garden Coordinator to support Athens County school gardens as well as other youth gardens. This includes garden maintenance, but also work with teachers to explore resources and develop curricula for integrating gardening into classroom work.
• Individual Interest Project: If the student has particular interest and/or skills in an area not defined above, they are welcome to develop a proposal for the work that they would like to and how it benefits CFI. This could be worked out with Director Mary Nally.

Rural Action with Sustainable Agriculture

Rural Action is a member-based development organization that has been working in Appalachian Ohio since 1991. It’s work focuses on creating programs that promote economically and environmentally sustainable communities in this region of Ohio. Some of Rural Action’s programs are Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Forestry, Watershed Restoration, the Zero Waste Initiative, the Energy Committee, and Environmental Education.

The Food Studies intern would work primarily with the Sustainable Agriculture program, which works to build and support local food systems in Southeastern Ohio. This means connecting producers with consumers through projects such as the Chesterhill Produce Auction, the Ohio Foodshed, Country Fresh Stops, and Season Creation. The intern’s involvement would be dependent on their skill set and interests, as well as the pressing needs and projects of the organization. The intern would act as support to the full-time staff, as well as the VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) and COMCorps members in these initiatives.

Intern involvement could include:

• Writing support:
• Turning data into descriptions.
• Graphic design support.
• Mapping of food access and other data.
• Website development.
• Community development through peer-to-peer education.
• Labor intensive work with the produce auction.

Snowville Creamery

The intern experience with Snowville Creamery can be as wide-ranging as Snowville’s participation in the communities that it serves. Snowville’s dedication to quality of sources, processing, and product recognizes that the dairy industry is intimately connected to issues of public health. These issues range from environmental and agricultural sustainability, to worker rights and human nutrition. They view themselves as an integrated junction between the farmers, their suppliers, and the retailers that carry  their milks, creams, and yogurts. Because of the dynamic nature and purpose of this company, the Food Studies summer interns will not only gain a substantial understanding of dairy processing, but also of ethical and sustainable business practices in the context of the rich and evolving local food system in and around Athens, OH.

Student interns at Snowville will be challenged to be effective and productive in a variety of different capacities within the business. This internship provides an opportunity for the student to find out how they work and what they have to offer in a professional capacity.

These positions could include involvement any of the following:

• Laboratory work: Testing the milk and yogurt, regulating the production process.
• Production: Working with processing the dairy.
• Packaging the final product.
• Engineering: Optimizing plant technology to insure efficiency.
• Marketing: Advertizing and sampling the product.
• Accounting: Keeping the books.
•  Orders: Working with organizing the incoming and outgoing orders.
• Management structure: Firsthand experience in running a business of this kind.

Shagbark Seed & Mill

Shagbark Seed & Mill is a prototype local food facility that processes Ohio grown certified organic bean, grain, into products like dry beans, flour, grits, pasta, chips and crackers. Launched in 2010, Shagbark Seed & Mill aims to create a model for a triple bottom line grain processing facility that addresses the need for food security and sustainable agriculture around the key crops that affect soil, water, and health more than any other—corn, beans, wheat, pseudo cereals, and oil seed. The facility is also used for other start-ups and for research.

All interns will be oriented through a tour and those who choose to work with Shagbark spend their first week experience doing all manner of hands on work at the mill, where discussions about our work will be integrated into activities like helping with bagging product, being at our farmers market booth, etc. We believe that no matter what the ultimate focus of your internship, from marketing to economics to policy issues to nutrition–it’s key that each intern have the opportunity to discuss their ideas with the crew and owners in the context of the work we do every week.

Intern opportunities include several internships with different interests:.

Marketing:

• Demo our products and recipes in stores, at markets, and at summer events around the state at fairs, festivals, schools, and conferences.
• Campus Network-Further an on campus network of those who want to support the local food movement by bringing more local food to Ohio University’s food system.
• Social Media—Photos and posts on our social media pages.
• Newsletter–develop an email newsletter and contact list.

Policy

• Assisting develop our role with the OEFFA non-GMO project and with other policy issues around grains and beans, including analysis of subsidies, impacts of chemical inputs in water and soil, etc.
• Research the history and impacts of the grain subsidy system.

Business and Food Access         

• Good Food for All program next steps—
  • Make GFFA sustainable as a business model.
  • Work with the YEAH program (Youth Entrepreneurship at Hope Apartments) to develop business ideas around using grains and beans in products they sell at the market. The nature of this work will be determined cooperatively with YEAH members and CFI.

Nutrition: Work with CFI’s Discovery Kitchen around how to cook grains and beans for food pantry patrons. This work may also take place in Washington County (Marietta) depending on grant approval.

Accounting: Clerk for our accountancy system.