Genesis Gardens
Internship Application
In 2005, Mobile Loaves & Fishes Inc. began a journey. They founded a nationally unique housing model for the chronically homeless. They called it Community First! (CF!). For the last six years, the program has sought to provide much more than “adequate housing” for the homeless. Rather, reflecting on the many factors present in the concept of “home”, CF! is a radical shift beyond materialistic approaches to homelessness, zeroing-in on the fundamental pillars of homecoming: belonging, connectedness, collective memory and relationships of trust. CF! lifts the chronically homeless off the streets and into a community of intentional homecoming!
In 2009, the Community First! approach inspired a sustainable food program called Genesis Gardens. Genesis Gardens is a seed-to-table food program intentionally set up for a community. We’re leveraging the many “fruits” of organic farming to facilitate paid job training, hospitality, and community health. The staff and volunteers of Genesis Gardens grow the best food on earth, and help to transform mindsets marked by scarcity into a community of abundance and health.
Genesis Gardens and the Community First! Program are now creating a new internship model. We’re seeking applicants who maintain a unique combination of interests: a desire to learn the disciplines of sustainable agriculture, an eagerness to foster their own spiritual growth, and a willingness to do so while working harder than they’ve ever worked in their lives among a community of formerly homeless individuals.
A snapshot of the Genesis Gardens Internship program:
• Interns will spend 25 hours a week doing hands-on farm work in gardens, among goats, chickens, and all the ag-related tasks that make our operation work.
• Additional time will be dedicated to food preparation and distribution to CF! clients
• Interns will participate in daily and weekly discussion and discipleship classes hosted by Leadership Greenhouse, and Austin-based leadership and discipleship training organization. More about the LG program can be found at leadershipgreenhouse.com
• Interns will live in a community house in East Austin
• The length of the internship will be four months with the possibility of readmission
• Cost: $350
For more information, please contact Steven@mlf.org
Genesis Gardens Internship Application
