Home » About Food First » Who we are » Interns and Volunteers

Become a Food First Intern or Translator


Scroll down for intern/translation application form

Thank you for your interest in interning or translating at Food First. Since Food First was founded in 1975, interns and translators have played important roles in all aspects of the Institute's work.

Interns work with staff on specific projects for 15 to 40 hours per week for at least three months. On-site interns conduct research and analysis, provide outreach and education, and assist with publications and publicity.

Food First Internships and Translators - Background Information

A few things you should know about all Food First internships:

  • In house interns may spend as much as 20-25% of their time on administrative and other office duties. The vast majority of time will be spent on your specific project.
  • Some interns wish to receive college credit for their work. We will do whatever possible to insure that your internship meets those requirements.
  • While all interns should have a regular work schedule, time commitments are flexible depending on your work or school schedule and the nature of the project.
  • All intern and translation work becomes the property in perpetuity of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy.
  • Interns and translators are not paid for their services.

Find out what other interns and colleagues say about Food First.

Here's what one recent intern had to say about her experience. "My time at Food First was extremely beneficial to me personally and academically. The concept of Food Sovereignty and the knowledge that Eric and the Food First staff hold was vital to my MA research . I learned about movements and issues that I wouldn't have been exposed to if I'd stayed home. I also grew on a personal level, meeting people from various backgrounds who all had different interests and experiences in the food movement. The volunteer group atmosphere is great and I made some amazing friends. The staff at Food First encouraged us to get involved in food events in the Bay area and they lovingly cooked us lunch every day - that was awesome! I think Food First is a great place to volunteer for if you're interested in food justice and food sovereignty, or if you want to learn more about food through researching and writing updates for their very active website! As a volunteer you are recognized as a crucial person in the Food First family and supported to take on new challenges and achieve your own goals."

Intern opportunities include:

RESEARCH

Research supports the following program areas:

  • Building Local Agri-Foods Systems
  • Farmers Forging Food Sovereignty
  • Democratizing Development: Land, Resources and Markets
  • Food Policy

Tasks include:

  • Identifying and analyzing data
  • Identifying and publicizing sustainable urban and rural agriculture success stories
  • Identify and compile latest information on the impact of industrial farming practices on food access and the environment
  • Document the impact of corporate consolidation on access to healthy food

    • TRANSLATION

  • Translating from or into Spanish, French and Portuguese
  • Research on-line for documents in other languages (Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese)
  • Edit documents in Spanish, French and Portuguese.

OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

  1. Edit and write for one of Food First's e-mail newsletters, People Putting Food First, Food Workers - Food Justice, Movements (food Sovereignty Tours), African Alternatives to the Green Revolution (English or French).
  2. Develop fact sheets, activist and resource guides on issues such as genetic engineering of seeds, water, transnational corporate control of food, and community food systems.
  3. Help to improve Food First's web site by surveying other nonprofit websites for new ideas for both format and content, and possible links to related sites. Or use your social network savvy to maintain Food First's Facebook, Twitter, and Change pages, and reach out to your friends on Food First issues.

PUBLISHING, MARKETING, PUBLICITY AND FUNDRAISING

  1. Publishing intern: assist with newsletter and book publishing.
  2. Edit the next edition of Alternatives to the Peace Corps.
  3. Maintain a database of book reviewers and media outlets for author interviews/feature stories. Assist with press packets.
  4. Write press releases to publicize Food First's latest research and contact newspaper and web sites for possible publication
  5. Assist with maintaining a database of journalists and media outlets.
  6. Learn how to fundraise. Assist with member services. Identify and obtain information on potential foundation funders and major donors.

Submit your application below!

In addition to this form, please send your resumé, cover letter indicating your goals and interests and why you want to intern at Food First. Describes your particular skills, education (including major), and work/volunteer experience.
Provide the names of two references, and attach a short writing sample to Marilyn Borchardt.

Contact information
Internship information

See descriptions above.

When would you like to begin your internship?

When do you plan to end your internship?

Be careful not to overestimate.

References

Name and contact (e-mail or phone) of a reference.

Name and contact (e-mail or phone) of a second reference.

Computer skills

ie. Word, Open Office, etc.

ie. PageMaker, Quark, Corel, etc.

ie. Excel, Open Office, etc.

ie. MySQL/PHP, etc.

Please check all that apply.

Documents

Accepted file formats are: txt, odf, odt, pdf, rtf, doc.

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image without spaces.