Organization Description:
Irvine Nature Center is a non-profit educational organization that offers programs of environmental studies and natural science to children and adults of the greater Baltimore area. Our mission is to educate and inspire current and future generations to explore, respect and protect nature.
Internship Position Description:
This internship is UNPAID, but eligible for academic or course credit if approved by your educational institution. Reducing food waste is an important part of reducing our carbon footprint. This internship provides an exciting opportunity to tackle this issue at Irvine Nature Center. The candidate will assess where food waste is occurring at Irvine and then develop and help implement methods to reduce. This will include creating a short lesson for visiting school groups to encourage them to reduce food waste as well as properly sorting their recycling items.
Position Responsibilities:
• Assess where food waste is occurring at Irvine and implement a kitchen composting system
• Build and maintain a worm bin
• Produce signage to encourage proper use of composting
• Develop a short lesson plan on food waste for visiting school groups (and potentially classroom visits/ public programs, etc.)
• Work with local company to supply surplus produce for animal care use
Qualifications:
• Self-motivated and able to work independently
• Able to work with groups of different ages and explain ideas with enthusiasm
• Some background knowledge about impacts of climate change preferred
Hours:
• Must have Monday – Friday availability
• Flexible but a minimum of 8 hours/week is required
• Able to work partly when school groups are having lunch (usually between 11:30-1pm)
Project Details:
• Learn lots of practical ways to impact climate change through the issue of food waste
• Learn proper techniques for composting and maintaining worm bins.
• Opportunity to develop and implement ideas
TO APPLY: Please fill out the Volunteer Application on our website at https://www.explorenature.org/get-involved/volunteer/ before sending your resume and three references to our Volunteer Coordinator, Maggie Winkler, at WinklerM@ExploreNature.org.