River City Youth Ops

🌟 Join Us for the Annual Harvest Dinner Fundraiser! 🌟

📅 Date: Thursday, October 3rd
🕰️ Time: Doors open at 6PM, first course at 6:30PM
📍 Location: Inland Pacific Kitchen, Downtown Spokane
👗 Dress: Cocktail attire or your favorite fall going-out look!

Support River City Youth Ops in empowering Spokane’s youth through community engagement, job training, and education. Get your tickets here: https://givebutter.com/harvestdinner2024 **There is limited seating, so move fast!**

Interested in sponsoring? Contact our Executive Director at [email protected]

Together, we can create a brighter future! 🌱✨

Stop by Main Market Co-op anytime during the whole month of July and round up at the register for our organization! Thank you for your support 🌱✌🏼

📢 We’re Hiring!🌟Join Our Team🌟

Are you passionate about youth development, community engagement, and urban agriculture? Do you have strong leadership skills and experience in program management? We’re looking for an Operations Manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of our organization!

Key Responsibilities:
🌱 Oversee our annual summer program and urban garden
🤝 Manage community outreach and public relations
📋 Supervise and train our amazing staff
💰 Assist in financial management and grant applications

Qualifications:
🗂 3-5 years in operations management or a similar role
👥 Strong leadership and community engagement skills
🌿 Knowledge of urban agriculture

If you’re ready to make a difference and grow with us, apply now using this link: https://jobs.gusto.com/postings/river-city-youth-ops-operations-manager-c5fd29f3-72b0-44f5-b46a-4181a82ff308

Let’s cultivate a brighter future together! 🌟💚

Hello to all in our network:

We have an important program update to share. We have decided to pause recurring youth programs (Seed Leads and Ground Makers) while we develop more effective processes for supporting participants, volunteers, and staff during mobile program activities.

We understand that this decision impacts youth in our community. We plan to announce pop-up youth opportunities during the summer and will share more updates in the coming weeks, in collaboration with our program partners.

We are so grateful for our network of youth who have participated in our programs during the last year while we introduced new activities and opportunities. We also appreciate our community’s understanding as we make changes to programs during an exciting season of growth for our organization.

To learn more about this and other updates, please see our April newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/youthops/april2024_rcyo_newsletter

📣 Save the date! Our Spring Volunteer Kickoff is right around the corner.

Community members of all ages are invited to join us on Wednesday, May 8 as we celebrate the start of a new season of community engagement and investment. This is an opportunity to learn more about our work, meet our team, and be in community with other folks who care about youth development and food systems work. We’ll have pizza and seeds to share!

✦ Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2024
✦ Time: 4:30 - 6:30 pm
✦ Place: Saranac Commons Rooftop (25 W Main Avenue)

To RSVP, please complete our Google form here: https://forms.gle/Md7iZqjKGTX3No9j8

We are hiring!

River City Youth Ops is now accepting applications for our Executive Director role. This role will be responsible for leading the operations, growth, and mission of our organization.

To learn more about this role, how it supports our mission, or to apply, please visit https://jobs.gusto.com/postings/river-city-youth-ops-executive-director-eb8241e6-ebbc-4db8-a985-9ce4fb9f5586 or scan the QR code in our image.

This position will remain open until May 15, 2024.

Broth Update: We have postponed today's 3 - 4:30 pm broth making session because the time just didn't work for folks. Youth who signed up to join have been notified.

We're pivoting! We'll start a bit early tomorrow to make a fresh batch of veggie broth ahead of our service activity. No broth making today but we'll be making & sharing broth from 2 - 6 pm tomorrow instead. Youth ages 12 - 18 are welcome to join us at Our Place tomorrow afternoon!

📣 Calling Spokane youth (ages 12 - 18) looking for community connection during spring break:

We have 2 days of free community broth activities coming up on Tuesday, April 2 and Wednesday, April 3 at Our Place! This is a great opportunity to learn how to make broth, develop your understanding of food access resources in our community, and support community health in West Central! Snacks will be provided!

Youth who join us can count up to 5 hours of volunteer or community service for their school, extra curricular, or resume goals!

If you're interested in joining us, please complete our form to help us plan for snacks that support your dietary practices: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdc93mLG5MVBMlt233jdZVpIwfYOQ0992MPSRrCqp7cc6XW0g/viewform

We hope you'll join us!

We're excited to share our newest youth program: Seed Leads 🌱!

In Seed Leads, youth have the opportunity to participate in their food system by starting edible plants from seed; learning about the origins, needs, and significance of specific crops; and stewarding plants from seed to seedling. This program is free!

Participant eligibility requirements:
✦ Between 12 and 18 years of age
✦ Interested in learning about your food system

Our first two sessions are right around the corner and will take place at Salem Lutheran Church (1428 W Broadway Avenue). We are grateful for Salem's support of our community food systems work!

Youth are invited to join us on the following dates and times in April:
✦ Friday, April 5: 2 - 3:30 pm
✦ Saturday, April 13: 2 - 3:30 pm

To learn more about Seed Leads, please visit: https://www.youthops.org/seed-leads

Spring is here and broth is back! 🥣 Read more below to learn about opportunities for youth in our community to participate in this food access effort.

This opportunity will take place over 2 days at Our Place (1509 W College Ave):
✦ Tuesday, April 2; 3 - 4:30 pm: Make veggie broth with us!
✦ Wednesday, April 3; 2:30 - 6 pm: Share broth with neighbors in West Central!

Youth ages 12-18 are invited to join us for another 2-day service learning opportunity. This is a great opportunity to connect with community during spring break! Things to know:
✦ Food worker permits are optional!
✦ Snacks will be provided
✦ Both days can count towards volunteer and community service hours for school and your resume!

If you'd like to join us, please RSVP using this form to help us plan for snacks: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdc93mLG5MVBMlt233jdZVpIwfYOQ0992MPSRrCqp7cc6XW0g/viewform

March is here and we've got a lot to share! You can learn more about our Valentine's Day broth service, a special announcement regarding our collaborative mural with Our Place, and updates to our 2024 youth programs by checking out our latest newsletter here:

https://mailchi.mp/youthops/march2024goodnews

Sharing Food, Art, and Good News! Learn more about our collaborative mural project with Our Place Community Outreach, our Valentine's Day broth service, and upcoming youth programs in our March newsletter.

On this rainy day, we'd like to send some gratitude to Snake River Seed Cooperative for supporting our upcoming youth programs with a donation of seeds through their 2024 Community Seeds in Action program!

Okra, corn, mustard and more seeds will be added to our growing library of regionally adapted seeds for our 2024 youth programs, which we'll share more about in our upcoming newsletter. We love that we'll be able to share seeds produced by sustainable and community-minded farmers in our region with youth in our community. When we plant seeds, people grow!

To learn more about Snake River Seed Cooperative's awesome work and seed selection, visit https://snakeriverseeds.com/

We're reflecting on our broth service from last week and have another round of thank-yous to the partners who helped make this possible. We estimate that we shared about 60 warm cups of nutrient-dense and locally sourced broth with neighbors in West Central on Valentine's Day. It was a breezy, chilly evening and perfect for broth!

Thanks again to Our Place for hosting us and to Salem Lutheran Church for sharing their kitchen with us on our broth-making day.

Thank you to Casa Cano Farms, Happy Mountain Mushrooms, and Ramstead Ranch for sharing your spectacular ingredients with us. Both broths were delicious and we've frozen our 1.5 remaining gallons of bone broth concentrate for future community sharing opportunities.

We are grateful to be in partnership with so many leaders in different parts of our community food system. We look forward to sharing more about this activity once we collect feedback from our partners.

Here's a sneak peek of the veggie broth our team made this weekend in preparation for tomorrow evening's service activity at Our Place!

Roasted Happy Mountain Mushrooms serve as the base for this deliciousness with roasted garlic, onion, celeriac, and ginger bringing it all together. We sampled our broth with quinoa, bok choy, and a pinch of salt. Souper tasty, if you ask us!

If you'd like to volunteer to join us in sharing our veggie and bone broth with neighbors tomorrow, you can meet us at 3pm at Our Place Community Outreach (1509 W College Ave, Spokane, WA 99201).

Another big round of thanks to our other supporting farm partners at Ramstead Ranch and Casa Cano Farms. Thanks to Salem Lutheran Church for sharing your kitchen with us!

We're taking a quick break from promoting Wednesday's broth service with Our Place Community Outreach to finalize a seed order from Snake River Seed Cooperative for our upcoming youth seed starting program (updates coming soon!). We need your help! What 🍅 should we grow this year?

We're interested in sharing plant starts with our community this year, so your opinion matters. There are so many delicious varieties of tomatoes available and it can be a bit overwhelming to narrow things down. Some of the ones we're most intrigued by are shown here (photo credit: Snake river Seed Cooperative).

Snake River Seed Cooperative tomato varieties pictured (clockwise from upper left corner): Black Prince, Jaune Flamme, Green Zebra, Black Krim, Moscow Idaho, Idagold, Brandywine, and Cherokee Purple

Which tomato varieties would you like to see us grow and share this year? Comment below with any variety you think we should consider!

Look at those beautiful mushrooms from Happy Mountain Mushrooms! Special thanks to Krysta, Jennifer, and team for sharing 3 different varieties of mushrooms with us to support our community broth service with Our Place. We roasted these beauties up yesterday until golden and nutty to add to both our veggie and meaty broths.

Our bowls are brimming with gratitude for all of the partners who are making this possible, including but not limited to Ramstead Ranch, Casa Cano Farms, the aforementioned Happy Mountain Mushrooms team, and neighbors throughout West Central who care deeply about community, health, and regional food systems. All three of these farm partners are supporting community health year-round and are awesome, caring humans!

Our broth preparations were a success today! Thank you to Casa Cano Farms for donating their beautiful (and ginormous!) beef bones to support our bone broth. We're also grateful for the carrot donation they made, sourced from Hirschel Heritage Farms, which will be added to our broths closer to our service day. Stay tuned for more farmer shout-outs in the coming days!

Our veggie broth is safely tucked away until our Wednesday service, but our bone broth has another 36 hours or so to bring out all of the amazing collagen and other goodness. A member of our youth team suggested that someone needs to make a bone broth scented candle. They're not wrong! This is good stuff, folks!

Special thanks to Salem Lutheran Church for sharing their kitchen with today, and to Happy Mountain Mushrooms and Ramstead Ranch for sharing their mushrooms and chicken and lamb bones to help make this service learning initiative possible.

Our broth service is right around the corner! Today we begin our farm and ranch partner thank-yous. First up, Ramstead Ranch!

Eileen, Stan, Jean, and team have generously donated lamb and chicken bones and bits to support our broth service with Our Place. Thank you to Ramstead Ranch for supporting our work! 🐑 🐓 🙌

Ramstead Ranch's chicken and lamb bones will join beef bones from Casa Cano Farms and mushrooms from Happy Mountain Mushrooms for our bone broth. Stay tuned for more farm features later this week! We're grateful to have so many compassionate leaders from our regional food system supporting this new initiative.

Interested in joining us? RSVP using the Google form here: https://forms.gle/ZZkPjrKVgtReTQuk9

Some updates regarding this month's broth 🥣 activities...

First up, we know where we'll be making broth this Saturday, February 10 from 10 am to 2 pm. Salem Lutheran Church will be sharing their kitchen with us to support this community food project. Youth can meet us at 1428 W Broadway Avenue in the West Central neighborhood.

Another update for our broth-making day: we are no longer requiring current food worker permits for this activity, since we will be reviewing food safety practices before we begin preparing food.

Bonus: Youth who join us will get to try some tasty baked goods from Sandos! 🍪

Interested youth can learn more about & RSVP to our 2/10 broth workshop here: https://forms.gle/ZZkPjrKVgtReTQuk9

Our team had a great time at Gonzaga University's Spring Service Fair yesterday. We came with container-friendly seeds to share with students interested in service learning opportunities. About 20 regionally adapted seed packets found homes with students, which is so exciting! That's thousands of seeds shared across campus!

We're also taking a moment to highlight some of our seed-related goals for 2024. There are a lot of wonderful people and agencies in our region producing and sharing seeds. Snake River Seed Cooperative is one team of seed folks who we are sourcing from to meet our 2024 seed goals:

1. Using regionally adapted seeds.
2. Using ethically produced seeds
3. Sharing seeds with our community
4. Starting & saving seeds with youth

Stay tuned for more updates on our seed goals this month! 🌱

We are excited to announce an upcoming youth service activity with our partners at Our Place! This February, we will be testing a new, seasonal youth opportunity focused on broth.

This activity is designed to:
• Develop youth food handling and community service skills
• Share warm cups of broth with community members
• Highlight local farms supporting our community food systems
• Share resources to about heart health for Valentine's Day

This project will take place on 2 different days in February:
• Broth making day: Saturday, February 10: 10 am - 2 pm
• Broth sharing day: Wednesday, February 14: 3 pm - 7 pm

Youth ages 12-18 and past participants are invited to join us on one or both of these days and snacks will be provided! A current WA food worker permit is required.

To learn more and/or RSVP, please visit: https://forms.gle/ZZkPjrKVgtReTQuk9

📣 Calling ALL past participants of River City Youth Ops / Project Hope summer programs: Your feedback matters to us and will help us create opportunities that work with your interests and availability.

Former participants from any year of Project Hope / River City Youth Ops summer programming who complete our Participant Survey by January 31, 2024 will be eligible to receive 1 of 3 $25 grocery gift cards! Names will be drawn at random in early February.

How to participate:

By January 31, complete our Participant Survey linked here and in our link in bio: https://forms.gle/ZCsRnWWYMRLAZ62j7

If you've already completed this survey, thank you for your input! You will automatically be entered into our raffle for sharing your feedback with us.

Happy New Year from River City Youth Ops!

We're starting 2024 with a reminder about our relocation announcement from the solstice. We're looking for a new location (or multiple locations) that will allow us to continue our expanding youth food programs in the West Central neighborhood.

We are still looking for community input regarding our future location(s)! Here are the criteria we are using to find spaces that might be a good fit for our work:
• Kitchen space
• Planting space
• Meeting space
• Storage space
• Secular (non-religious) space
• Near a bus stop
• In West Central (see map illustration!)

Please share your input via our form here: https://forms.gle/dFqGjtFTPmVmB5BT6