YUMI Intercultural York are looking for sociable, friendly, voluntary Garden Team Leaders to work with volunteers on their magical community garden at Fulford Cross Allotments. Here is what they are looking for: 

Are you: 

• An experienced gardener, good at growing vegetables, familiar with everything from slug attacks, droughts and black fly on the broad beans? 
• Patient, cheerful, willing to pass your skills and experience on to keen amateurs who are eager to learn? 
• Interested in working with, learning about and spending time with people from all over the world and from many different cultures
• Wondering about taking up some (seasonal) voluntary activity? 

If yes, you might be just what YUMI Intercultural York is looking for.

 What is YUMI Intercultural York? 

YUMI is an intercultural network that connects people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, who have come to York from all over the world, with the local community. 

Growing and eating food is at the heart of what we do and we provide training and support for people from all ages and backgrounds to make friends and get involved in projects and events at our International Community Garden. 

Our activity can provide opportunities for participants to: 

• Share skills and cultural traditions as they grow produce from their native countries. 
• Come together to share traditional dishes with each other and the wider public at community events.
• Develop English language skills while making new friends at our Conversation Café or International Craft Group. 

What would it involve? 

We are looking for a couple of individuals to share a role leading volunteers in growing crops and looking after our Community Garden. Regular garden days take place from April to October and usually between 10-12pm every Saturday. We are looking to offer additional sessions during the week and on occasional Friday late afternoons (5-7pm). 

We need someone who loves to chat to people and will be a friendly face at the garden to welcome new members to YUMI.

Specific tasks include:

• To lead the planning, growing and maintenance of the YUMI Community Garden 
• To be the ‘face’ of the YUMI Community Garden when new volunteers arrive
• To be responsible for delivering inductions and ongoing support of gardening volunteers
• Support volunteers and participants during garden sessions and help them to develop gardening skills
• To help with YUMI events in the Community Garden where possible
• Liaise with project volunteers and participants ahead of sessions to inform of timings, tasks and co-ordinate attendance at sessions 

Who would you be working with? 

YUMI works with people of all ages and cultures. Some are keen gardeners, some have little to no experience… but all are keen to learn. At the moment we have a core team of around 6 volunteers who support to maintain the garden, also helping out at activities and events. 

What sort of support would you get? 

As a team we will be working with the Refugee Council to ensure we are fully trained up to work with refugees and confident in providing the right kind of support. You will be supported with policies and procedures.

What would success look like, for YUMI and our gardeners? 

By enlisting the help of a garden team leaders we hope to:

• Increase the number of people across the city that we are supporting by increasing the number of days of regular garden days at our International Community Garden to once a week (April to August).
• Strengthen the position of our garden as a safe and welcoming hub where people from a wide range of backgrounds can come to meet people, develop new skills and feel an increased sense of belonging in a beautiful, friendly outdoor setting.
• Increase the number of crops we are growing to help us develop the self-sustaining capacity of YUMI by selling chutneys, herb mixes etc.

Interested? Get in touch with Sara Mair.