New Jersey Climate Change Corps
Rutgers’ Department of Family and Community Health Sciences is currently looking to hire AmeriCorps Members to serve as the new Climate Change Corps in schools full-time to implement climate change education and programming for the 2023-24 school year.
Activities performed by the AmeriCorps members will include:
- Teaching lessons on climate change to fifth grade classes
- Training school food service personnel in strategies to reduce food waste in cafeterias
- Conducting food waste assessments in school cafeterias to measure how much food is wasted
Applicants need not have a background in any specific topic area. They need only be passionate about youth, food security, and/or climate change education, be reliable and responsible, and have reliable transportation to get to the schools where they will be teaching. They will be trained to implement all required activities, including teaching lessons, performing food waste audits, and training staff by the faculty and staff overseeing this program.
Benefits for AmeriCorps Members:
- Living allowance
- Education Award upon successful completion of the program (can be used to pay tuition or student loans)
- Ability to put student loans into forbearance while serving with AmeriCorps (with no interest accrual)
- Professional, networking, and leadership development opportunities
- Experience teaching in public schools
INTERESTED IN APPLYING? Fill out this form and someone from the food waste team will contact you!
Background on NJ Climate Change Corps
The Rutgers Food Waste Team has been successfully partnering with schools since 2018 to implement strategies that reduce the amount of food waste generated by cafeterias. The team has also piloted curricula in schools across New Jersey that teach students the importance of reducing food waste.
New Jersey became the first state in the nation to mandate climate change education for K-12 public schools and will implement that mandate this year. In response, Rutgers Food Waste Team has developed curricula for fifth grade students that address food waste and its effects on climate change. Food waste reduction practices are framed as a solution to climate change in the unit.
The goals of Climate Change Corps will be to improve school administrations’ and fifth grade students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, toward adapting food waste reduction practices, and, ultimately, to reduce the amount of food waste produced by the schools in which they work.
Please reach out to Jennifer Shukaitis (shukaitis@njaes.rutgers.edu) for more information and to apply for this program.