Kitchen Volunteerships

Grab your apron!

Our kitchen volunteership invites you into an Edible Schoolyard NYC kitchen classroom once per week for an entire school semester. Working under the supervision of the kitchen teachers, volunteers assist with daily setup, food preparation, and clean up. Volunteers end the day sharing a tasting with our student chefs. All volunteerships conclude with a volunteer appreciation potluck! (Please note this is not a teaching position.)

Responsibilities include:

  • Set up before class: basic food preparation and setting up teaching trays
  • Classroom maintenance: washing dishes and resetting teaching trays
  • Breakdown after class: reorganizing washed dishes and cleaning up

Apply to be a volunteer


At P.S. 216 in Gravesend, Brooklyn

The kitchen classroom volunteership at P.S. 216 is either a fifteen-week (fall) or twenty-three-week (spring) commitment. As a volunteer, you pick one full day of the week, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, to commit to for the semester. Fall volunteers begin in September; spring volunteers, in January, with class schedules aligned with the school calendar.

At P.S. 7 Samuel Stern in East Harlem

In East Harlem, the semester-long kitchen classroom volunteers make a weekly commitment for either the fall (September to December) and/or spring (January to June) semesters. As a volunteer, you’ll select the same day and time to volunteer each week, from Monday through Friday for a half or full day shift:

  • Mornings, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • Afternoons, 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
  • Full day, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Exact times for volunteering change week to week depending on class schedules; volunteers can expect a single morning or afternoon shift to be no more than 2.5 to 3 hours.