Food as Medicine: Teaching Indigenous Foodways
Serve Your Community, Grow Your Career
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Applications for 2025-2026 open in December. Check your eligibility & we'll send you an email reminder.
Take the QuizAs a FoodCorps service member, you’ll teach kids to grow, cook, and love the nourishing foods that celebrate their cultures and communities—and help schools serve more of those foods, too. FoodCorps recruits talented leaders into full-time, paid public service, where they grow healthy school food environments in diverse communities through hands-on, experiential food education.
What you’ll do
As a corps member, you’ll teach kids about nourishing food and help schools become healthier places for them to learn and grow. Here’s how.
Lead Hands-On Lessons
You’ll teach students to grow, cook, and taste new foods, building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for fruits and veggies. You’ll collaborate with teachers on integrating food into the curriculum, and you may help organize field trips to local farms or visits from chefs.
Influence Nourishing School Meals
You’ll cultivate a cafeteria experience that steers students towards fresh fruits and veggies, gets them excited to try new foods, and celebrates their culture and community. You’ll get kids to try samples during taste tests and brainstorm foods that make them feel strong and nourished. You may even work with food service directors and farmers to get local foods onto the lunch tray.
Build A Culture of Health
You’ll be an active, collaborative member of the school community, working to ensure that the whole school environment—from hallway to classroom to cafeteria—celebrates nourishing food. You may plan family cooking nights and organize food fundraisers, too.
FoodCorps Member Tamara Lewis offers a beet taste test. (Hartford, CT)
Benefits
FoodCorps members receive a stipend, health insurance, and other benefits. In addition, FoodCorps prepares alumni for lifelong careers of impact as food educators, school nutrition leaders, and policy influencers. Being part of the FoodCorps alumni network connects you to thousands of passionate professionals who can help you build a career at the intersection of food justice and education equity.
Living Stipend
Living Stipend$33,000 for the full 11-month term
AmeriCorps Segal Education AwardAfter successfully completing your FoodCorps term of service, you’ll be eligible for a $7,395 Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. You can use the award to repay qualified student loans and to pay current educational expenses at eligible institutions of higher education and training programs.
Student Loan ForbearanceAs a FoodCorps service member, you may be eligible for student loan forbearance. You can learn more from our partners at AmeriCorps.
Health InsuranceYou’ll receive basic health, dental, and vision coverage.
Relocation Support
Relocation SupportTo support the transition into service, all incoming corps members will receive $500 to cover relocation costs or to support a gap between jobs. These funds can be used for rent, gas, moving van rental, security deposit, and other costs associated with starting in a new role.
Partial Childcare ReimbursementsChild care assistance may be available for qualified service members who need the benefit in order to serve.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)Some service members are eligible to receive SNAP benefits.
Need-Based Funding
Need-Based FundingFoodCorps members can apply for funding to cover costs related to medical or family emergencies, natural disasters, or other unexpected costs related to service throughout their year of service.
FoodCorps Alumni NetworkOur model for change is about much more than your year of service. You’ll stay connected to FoodCorps throughout your career through our network of over 1,500 alumni.
Safety & Belonging
FoodCorps is committed to creating a just and equitable organization. We believe that all of our service members – inclusive of their race, ethnicity, gender, ability, or other personal characteristics – deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
As with any role, FoodCorps members may experience discrimination or other unwanted attention while serving, from subtle to overt. To support safety and belonging for everyone in our corps, we use the following strategies, which are rooted in a culture of accountability, efficacy, and humanity.
Regional Service Member Support Plans to proactively reduce harm and inequity that members may experience due to their intersectional identities. These plans include activities like DEI and conflicting management trainings, Restorative Justice Circles, and partnerships with local support and resource organizations.
Internal accountability process to address conflict or harm through mediation, training, and coaching. This restorative process is designed to repair harm that has been done and build stronger relationships.
Strong partnerships between FoodCorps state teams, regional directors, and human resources staff, ensuring a coordinated response to issues that arise and the best possible support for service members.
Clear systems for reporting incidents of inequity and/or harm. These systems make it easy for service members to come forward and share their experiences, and they ensure that their reports are taken seriously.
Training on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism to help FoodCorps members understand the importance of our commitments and to give them tools for creating more inclusive environments.
A support fund to provide assistance to members facing acute financial challenges during their FoodCorps service term.
Additional support services included in our benefits package, including counseling and therapy.
FoodCorps service members and staff at the Pierce Elementary School garden. (Flint, MI)
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