Lead Farm Steward

Sankofa Community Development Corporation is hiring for the Lead Farm Steward position in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, LA. This hands-on role supports the operation's day-to-day production and care work. Reliable execution and early communication matter because the work directly affects plants, animals, equipment, coworkers, customers, or the surrounding property. What you will do • Seed, transplant, cultivate, irrigate, harvest, wash, pack, and store crops according to the farm's plan and food-safety procedures. • Use and care for assigned hand tools, wash-pack equipment, carts, and field equipment within training. • Monitor crops and communicate pest, disease, water, weather, quality, or harvest-timing concerns promptly. • Grow purple hull peas, okra, mirlitons, and other seasonal crops across Sankofa's Lower Ninth Ward growing spaces, following current planting, care, harvest, and soil-stewardship priorities. • Monitor beds, irrigation, soil, crop health, harvest readiness, tools, and growing-space organization and address or report issues before they reduce productivity or food quality. • Prepare harvested food for community access activities and help volunteers, visitors, or learners understand the farm work while supporting environmental stewardship and garden education. How the work fits together Farm priorities follow crop condition, weather, harvest commitments, and customer orders. The crew checks urgent irrigation and harvest needs first, then moves through field production, post-harvest handling, accurate packing, storage, and cleanup. Each employee's work affects both crop life and the quality customers receive. At Sankofa Community Development Corporation, the employer also makes these role-specific priorities clear: Grow purple hull peas, okra, mirlitons, and other seasonal crops across Sankofa's Lower Ninth Ward growing spaces, following current planting, care, harvest, and soil-stewardship priorities. Monitor beds, irrigation, soil, crop health, harvest readiness, tools, and growing-space organization and address or report issues before they reduce productivity or food quality. Prepare harvested food for community access activities and help volunteers, visitors, or learners understand the farm work while supporting environmental stewardship and garden education. What the employer is looking for • Hands-on readiness to care for crops and land in New Orleans conditions and to complete consistent planting, cultivation, watering, harvest, and garden-organization work. • Commitment to food access, sustainability, community education, and respectful collaboration in neighborhood growing spaces, with enough initiative to lead daily stewardship work responsibly. • Dependable attendance, direct communication, and willingness to follow the employer's safety, quality, and customer- or production-care procedures. • Ability to complete the role's active, in-person work and to ask for instruction before using unfamiliar tools, equipment, products, or animal-handling methods. Schedule, conditions, and compensation Sankofa identifies Lead Farm Steward as a full-time role based in its Lower Ninth Ward growing spaces. The careers page does not publish numeric pay, benefits, precise shift times, weekend expectations, or an end date. The employer does not publish a numeric wage range on this page, so no compensation has been estimated. Applicants should confirm the final hours, overtime treatment, starting assignment, travel or reporting point, supplied equipment, and benefit eligibility directly with the employer before accepting an offer. This is an in-person agricultural production position with a small operation. Daily priorities can change with weather, plant or animal condition, equipment availability, customer schedules, and the season. The successful person should arrive ready to work, communicate early when a task or condition is unclear, follow the employer's safety and quality procedures, and leave tools, vehicles, production areas, and job sites secure and ready for the next shift. Applicants should expect active work that may include long periods of standing or walking, bending, lifting, repetitive hand tasks, noise, dust, mud, pollen, heat, cold, rain, or work around moving equipment. The exact physical demands differ by assignment. Candidates should discuss any accommodation needs with the employer and confirm the final schedule, overtime treatment, training period, travel expectations, and benefit eligibility before accepting an offer. Only compensation and benefits expressly published by the employer are included here; unpublished terms have not been estimated. How to apply Email a resume and cover letter to apply@sankofanola.org with the subject line Lead Farm Steward.