Benefits
A $15,000 living allowance: This taxable stipend is paid on a bi-weekly basis.
SNAP benefits: As an AmeriCorps member, you will be eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or Food Stamps, in your state of service.
A $5,550 AmeriCorps Segal Education Award: Upon successful competition of your 1,700 hour term of service, you will receive this monetary award which can be used to pay for education at qualified institutions of higher education, educational training, and to re-pay qualified student loans. To learn more, visit AmeriCorps’ Segal Education Award website.
Student loan forbearance: While FoodCorps can verify your status as an AmeriCorps service member, student loan forbearance approval is dependent on your loan holder. To learn more, visit AmeriCorps’ student loan payment website.
Health insurance: If you don’t have it already, FoodCorps will provide basic health, vision and dental coverage.
Partial childcare reimbursements: You can receive child care subsidy benefits, which may provide partial or full child care cost reimbursements, if you meet eligibility requirements. For more information visit AmeriCorps’ State & National Child Care Benefits Program website.
FoodCorps also provides ongoing training and exciting professional development programming to support service members as they explore career paths and life beyond FoodCorps:
- Training: You will join your fellow service members at two national trainings during your year-long term: a national orientation at the start of service in August and a mid-year training, the costs of which will be covered by FoodCorps. National training will cover many topics including food and nutrition education, school gardens, local food procurement, FoodCorps and AmeriCorps policies, conflict management, racism and classism, and cultural competency. You will also attend trainings held by your host and service sites, the first of which is a local orientation that will introduce you to your site, your community, its culture and history, and what your day-to-day service will look like. Throughout the year you will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of in-person and online trainings and sessions on topics related to food, farming, nutrition, cooking, public health, professional development, and more!
- Mentorship program: Based on your personal and professional interests, FoodCorps will pair you with an esteemed leader in the food system who will act as your mentor during your term of service (and perhaps for years to come). Some of our current mentors include:
- Doron Comerchero -- Director of Food What?!
- Diane Harris -- Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Anupama Joshi -- Executive Director of the National Farm to School Network
- Pam Koch -- Executive Director of the Center for Food & Environment Teachers College Columbia University
- Mark Muller -- Director of the Food & Society Fellows program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
- Other programming: You will have access to a wealth of educational and professional development opportunities through FoodCorps including monthly podcasts in which you interview food system luminaries, online resources curated by FoodCorps and former service members, a growing lending library from which you can take out books and films at no charge, and an online network of service members and colleagues from across the country.
- Alumni network: Not only will you connect with other members in your service class throughout the year, but following your term you will join a growing network of FoodCorps Alumni, talented and diverse leaders from across the country working as farmers and growers, teachers, chefs, nutritionists, public health advocates, non-profit managers, public servants, entrepreneurs...the list goes on. With a shared connection of FoodCorps service, you and your colleagues can stay connected, collaborate and share knowledge as you continue on in your incredible work.
- The Experience of a Lifetime: FoodCorps offers you a unique and transformative service experience like no other, a supportive community and network that will continue to grow beyond your term of service, and the opportunity to improve the health of children in our country.
