By Abha Thakkar
Northside Planning Council
The Northside Planning Council’s 11 board members and three staff are putting in lots of hours to publish the Northside News, keep FEED running smoothly, and make NPC a resource for the whole community. They are ready to take giant steps to serve the Northside even more effectively and have identified some of the needs to facilitate that improvement. Check out our wish list and see how you can help make the Northside a better place for all.
If you’re interested in these or other roles, please write to us at volunteer@northsideplanningcouncil.org. We’ll have a volunteer orientation session at 6 pm, Monday, Oct. 12, at the FEED Kitchens, 1219 N. Sherman Ave., followed by a FEED tour guide training at 7 pm.
Sunday Supper Volunteers
Four times a year, NPC partners with MSCR, Warner Park Community Recreation Center (WPCRC), Northside Farmers Market and Boomerangs Resale Store to host a free community dinner at WPCRC for all Northsiders. We always need help with setup, serving and cleanup, and it’s a fun opportunity to meet a diverse array of neighbors and enjoy some locally grown and prepared food. Come join us for a few hours and help build community.
FEED Tour Guides
Would you like to help others learn more about the FEED Kitchens? We’ll provide you with a script, give you training and practice, and then you can sign up for specific slots to be available for FEED tours. The most important trait we’re looking for is enthusiasm for the FEED Kitchens. The time commitment can be anywhere from 1‒3 hours per week, depending on the week and your availability.
FEED Business Coaches
Did you start your own successful business? Would you like to translate your experiences to helping others do the same? The new business owners at FEED are often on the lookout for mentors. Let us know if you’d like to be paired with someone just starting up or if you’d like to be involved with researching and developing an array of services we can make available through FEED.
FEED Landscaping and Gardening
Would you like to help maintain the gardens around FEED? We have an edible landscape with opportunities for creativity. Please bring your ideas and your desire to help us keep the premises beautiful for the many people who use and see FEED.
FEED Maintenance/Carpentry/Plumbing/Electric
Our FEED equipment is often in need of tinkering, and while Adam, our trusty manager knows his way around the appliances, he can’t be in all places at once. Do you have some expertise you’d like to offer, either as a volunteer or at a discounted rate for a nonprofit organization?
FEED Food Business Writers
Do you love to write and do you love food? As part of our business incubation services at FEED, we’d like to write promotional pieces for the food businesses that work there. Your role would be to interview and research our businesses (perhaps taste test samples?) and write up articles of a few different lengths that could be used in different ways (the Northside News, our online business directory, marketing materials, press releases, etc.). You could take on as many FEED businesses as you have time for.
FEED Marketing and Outreach Team
As a dedicated commercial kitchen space, FEED can play an important role in many different sectors of our community. We need help reaching out to cooking instructors, farmers, food processors, new food businesses, corporations that need team-building experiences, school and youth culinary programs, organizations interested in vocational training, and anyone who needs a caterer or personal chef. Help us develop our marketing strategies and reach out to those groups you think could make the most out of FEED.
FEED Billing Assistance
Billing at the FEED Kitchens is a complex process that requires many intermediate steps. Adam, our manager, could use someone to assist with compiling the necessary information (which we’ll train you how to do), especially during the last week of the month, in preparation for billing during the first week of the next month. This is an ongoing volunteer commitment that would involve some training and may help you develop some interesting new skills with Excel and QuickBooks.
FEED Walkthroughs
Would you like to help do FEED walkthrough inspections and keep us up to code? You’ll learn all the details about what condition a commercial kitchen needs to be in at the end of a day. This involves walking through the kitchens during the evening to check the cleanliness and condition of the appliances. You’ll document any problems you see and share them with the Inspection Team. We’ll train you, and you’ll get to pair up with an experienced volunteer until you’re ready to do it on your own. This commitment would involve doing a 30‒60 minute walkthrough once every 1‒2 weeks, on weeknights or weekends, depending upon your availability.
Northside News Digital Archivists
We’d like to get all 20 years of the Northside News on our website in HTML — fully searchable, fully tagged and categorized for easy access. This requires transferring text and photos to WordPress. We’ll train you on each step, but we need you to have access to a computer. This is fairly detail-oriented work, particularly in regards to applying the correct tags and categories to make the articles easily searchable.
Northside News Business Delivery
The Northside News gets mailed directly to 11,000 homes, and we hand-deliver another 2,000 copies to about 40 locations on the Northside. We’d love to have two volunteers to split the route. Delivery only takes place once every two months and generally takes about two hours. A station wagon or SUV is ideal, and it’s helpful if you’re able to meet us mid-day on the Tuesday when the paper is dropped off at the office (although we can work around this, depending on your schedule).
Northside News Writers
Have you always wanted to have your writing published? Come join us as a volunteer writer for the Northside News. As a community newspaper, we value enthusiastic new writers as well as more experienced journalists. Our goal is to have the diverse voices of our community represented. Take assignments or come up with your own story ideas. Curiosity and a passion for the Northside are more important than writing experience. We will provide training, support and editing for anyone who would like to learn this new skill.
Photographers
Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! The Northside is in need of creative photographers to capture both special events and daily life on the Northside. We need nature. We need people. We need folks who can take a good picture inside Warner Park Community Recreation Center. We need yummy pictures of food made at FEED. We need panoramic pictures for website banners. We need pictures that tell stories. Whether you consider yourself a pro or not, we need lots of different visual perspectives of the Northside. You can take specific assignments or simply email us great shots to use on our website northsidemadison.org, in the Northside News, or in marketing and promotional materials.
WordPress Developers
Abha, our interim Executive Director and Northside News Editor, is a web applications developer. Our website is based on WordPress with a child theme extended from a premium theme and several plugins, which have also been customized for our specific needs. (A nonprofit that does community organizing, publishes a newspaper, does economic development work, and runs a commercial kitchen? Not too many ready-made code packages out there!). She could use some assistance from other experienced developers who would like to help find creative ways to meet our eclectic technology needs.
Fund Development Committee
Do you have a passion for the Northside, the Northside News or FEED Kitchens? Would you like to help us raise the resources we need to better serve the community through these important assets? We would welcome anyone with energy and enthusiasm for helping to create a sustainable vision for the Northside. Fundraising experience is a bonus but not required.