Volunteers

Working with volunteers is core to what we do at Friendship Gardens, we feel that engaging the community helps those serving and the communities that are served. Volunteering with Friendship Gardens comes in many forms and it is our hope you we can work together to help you serve the community in a way you find meaningful.

General Gardening Volunteers

A great way for new volunteers to start out with us is to join us for one of our monthly volunteer info sessions. For those who want to start right away you can join in one of our regular gardening volunteer times. We have numerous gardens all over Charlotte that we can match you with to get you started. These volunteer opportunities will work with a leader to do various tasks in the garden. It's important to note that you do not need to know anything about gardening to participate. We design these times to not only get things done, but work in an educational component. Typical tasks include planting, harvesting, weeding, and tending the garden.

To find a general gardening volunteer opportunity check the "upcoming events" column to the right of this page. To get more info about our general volunteer info sessions click here

Start a Garden at your Site

Interested in starting a Friendship Garden in your community? Already have a garden and would like to join our network? We would love to talk to you. Each one of our garden partnerships are unique and fit both Friendship Gardens needs and the needs of the host site. There is no set amount of produce that you must donate. Friendship Gardens can help with garden design, consulting, initial volunteer build day, access to workshops, field trips and tours of Friendship Trays and our Demonstration garden on site, free seeds and often free plants. The host site is responsible general maintenance of the garden: planting, watering, harvesting, transporting harvest to Friendship Trays. If you would like to continue the discussion of a potential partnership please complete this online application and we will contact you soon.

Internships

We are continuously working with individuals for internships. We Believe that both the organization and the individual should benefit from their time at Friendship Gardens. Please go to our internship page click here.

Specialty Volunteer Opportunities

We realize that there are many people who wish to volunteer, but in a way that takes advantage to their passions, skills, or talents. It is for this reason that we offer specialty volunteer opportunities.

Garden Leader or Co-leader - Garden leaders adopt one garden in our network and make a significant contribution to our organization and to Friendship Trays through their volunteer efforts. They plant, weed, harvest, transport plants, host volunteers, turn compost piles, etc.
Garden Leaders/Co-Leaders currently needed for:

Photographer - Do you love to shoot...pictures? We need pictures of each garden for the website. We would also love to invite you to a work day to be the designated photographer.

Harvest Deliverer - Harvest time is busy! We need help getting the harvest from our gardens to the willing chefs at Friendship Trays. After years of volunteers taking food tray deliveries FROM Friendship Trays, it’s time for volunteers to deliver food TO Friendship Trays. We would pair you with one of our volunteer garden leaders and you could help deliver the harvest from the garden(s) they manage.

Baby Plant Starter - Our network of gardens need lots of plants. We can provide the supplies. Can you germinate, nurture, and baby-sit plants in your home before they are ready to plant outside?

Greenhouse Worker - Do you love baby plants? Want to help us start plants for our network of gardens in our donated greenhouse? We provide the supplies and can train you.

Leaf Thief! - Fall leaves make great mulch around plants and are an essential ingredient in making compost. We need LOTS of leaves year round. We need leaf thieves to save bags of leaves from the curb and deliver them to the Friendship Gardens.

Harvest Prep Team in the Kitchen - Cooking fresh collards is a lot more work than opening a can! Volunteers are needed to assist the kitchen staff in prepping the garden harvest that is donated (washing, de-stemming, etc). Can you help? Time slot is each Tuesday 11am - 12:30. Email Lani Lawrence llawrence@friendshiptrays.org if you are interested.

Composter - Did you know Friendship Trays creates 15-20lbs of food scraps every day that need to be composted? This could be a great source of Nitrogen for your home compost bin or a free source of food for your backyard chickens. Please let us know if you would like to take a 5 gallon bucket of frozen food scraps home to compost.

Mower / Weed Eater - Enjoy keeping the grass cut low? We grow food but also need to keep grass and weeds around gardens low. We need your help.

HomeGrown Volunteer - We will be helping to install gardens in the backyards of interested Habitat owners so that they can grow food for their family. Volunteers are needed to help with dig-in/planting days and to provide gardening mentoring to newbie Habitat gardeners.