Volunteering with Avenue 33 Farm

Thank you for your interest in volunteering with our farm!  Please read the following guidelines and expectations before scheduling a date to volunteer at the bottom of the page! 

We are currently hosting two different volunteer opportunities: located at Ave33 Farm and/or at LALA Farm, a high school farm in Lincoln Heights we work in partnership with.  Both spaces are on Avenue 33 in Lincoln Heights.  LALA Farm (LA Leadership Academy Farm) is a learning space for middle and high school students where classes are held about a wide range of topics intersecting with land and farming: from the chemistry and climate impacts of compost, to the social justice and labor history of farmworkers in California. LALA Farm also hosts a weekly food distribution for over 80 school families with the farm’s harvest and supported by donations from Imperfect Foods among others.

Your volunteer support helps us operate our emerging farm business here at Ave33 Farm. Our vision for the farm is to be a food hub for our Lincoln Heights community, making high quality sustainably-farmed vegetables accessible to all, and providing opportunities to gain practical experience and skills with regenerative farming. Volunteering with LALA Farm helps keep the school farm beautiful and a healthy learning space for students–as well as supports the community free food distribution.

We hope by volunteering with us you can gain practical experience with regenerative farming, deepen your community relationship or make a new friend! 

Mutual Commitment:

We are grateful to receive a lot of volunteer interest, but we can only host 4 volunteers at a time due to labor and physical space constraints. We treat a volunteer sign up as a commitment that we fully prepare for and plan our week around in order to host you.  Signing up to volunteer means you are making a commitment to support the day-to-day of our fully operating farm business. If you need to change your scheduled volunteer day, need to cancel, or will be late, please adjust the Gcal invite so arrangements can be made in your absence. 

You do not need to have farming experience, our hope is that you will leave having learned a new skill and we are there to answer any questions you might have. Some farm experience can be helpful though, so please let us know what kind of experience you do have or would like to contribute. 

Types of Activities, Physical Expectations and Volunteer Days:

Farming is generally physically demanding, but of course, very rewarding! Some examples of activities include squatting and working close to the ground for long periods of time while planting or weeding, carrying heavy soil or compost up and down the farm’ hillside, using tools such as a broadfork or pitchfork which requires your full body weight, and working in the nursery to plant seeds in trays before going into the ground.

We created 4 types of volunteer days to accommodate different interests and physical abilities. See below for the general physical expectations of each day to find the best fit for you:

  • Compost Day: Activity includes moving or mixing compost from one place to another; lifting heavy material, sometimes overhead. Learning about compost biology and different methods of creating compost)
  • Nursery Day: Activity includes primarily standing and using your arms, great for someone who prefers less physically demanding tasks. Learning about plant health and the first stage of growth. 
  • General Field Day: Activities could include physically demanding activities such as carrying heavy buckets of wood chips uphill, squatting to plant seedlings or weeding etc.. Learning includes a variety of regenerative farming practices.  
  • Tours: We host tours once a month and can accommodate up to 15 people. Includes walking up and down our farm’s steep hillside. 

Attire:

Especially in the summer months, the sun and heat are very strong. And because some of the volunteer activities might get you scratched up and could be strenuous, we recommend you wear and bring the following:

  • Long pants and long-sleeved shirts
  • Closed-toed shoes
  • Hat
  • Sunscreen
  • Water bottle
  • Allergy medicine you may need
  • Gloves (if you have them but not required)

Conduct & Safe Space: 

At both Ave33 Farm and LALA Farm, we invite you to learn about our work and join in becoming part of the farm’s community. We are a learning and growing space as well as a business space. We are a space for young students. We are a space for the Lincoln Heights community that is primarily immigrant, Mexican, Central American, and Vietnamese, and low-income families.

  • School environment: Please be mindful that this is a learning environment and a safe space for young students. No cursing, smoking, or drug use.  We ask that any volunteer be respectful of all community members and we reserve the right to ask anyone who cannot meet that requirement to leave.   
  • For everyone’s safety and learning, we encourage you to ask a lot of questions and to ask rather than assume (i.e. about how to use tools or where to put them back, etc…)
  • We occasionally will have produce for you to take home, but it isn’t always guaranteed. Because we are a business/school please don’t harvest your own vegetables or taste things in the field without asking. Some things could be poisonous or create an allergic reaction! 
  • Social media - We enjoy seeing pictures and sharing experiences with everyone who interacts with the farm.  You are welcome to take pictures and post to social media, however if other members of the community will be in those photos you must ask for their consent before posting.  And please be mindful when posting, we all come to the farm with different backgrounds and beliefs, some shared, some not shared.  We are excited for you to share your experience and thoughts of the farm but respectfully ask that you not speak for the farm or its community without consent.  *** If you are at the LALA Farm space you CANNOT post a picture with a student in it without a waiver signed by the student or their guardian.***

COVID Precautions: 

Please postpone your visit if you have any of these symptoms (ranging from mild to severe): 

Group Volunteers:

We enjoy having group volunteer days, whether it be a business, community organization, group of friends, or any other gathering of people.  If you have a larger group and would like to take part in a volunteer day please reach out to us at ave33farm@gmail.com, we can accommodate groups only with prior arrangement.  Our response may not be immediate and finding a day that works may take time.  If you wish to schedule a group volunteer day please reach out as early as possible to provide us with time to accommodate you, our availability fills up!