We love our vol­un­teers, and we know that we would be lost with­out them. There are lots of vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties at La Cocina, and, more than any­thing, we believe in build­ing a com­mu­nity between our staff, pro­gram par­tic­i­pants and vol­un­teers. Read on for infor­ma­tion on the vol­un­teer pro­gram, and please feel free to be in touch if you have any ques­tions at all. To join our vol­un­teer pro­gram, please begin with this sim­ple form.

La Cocina’s vol­un­teer pro­gram can essen­tially be divided into three parts; tech­ni­cal assis­tance providers, men­tors and gen­eral vol­un­teers . Some vol­un­teers will fill all roles, but the role you fill will largely depend on how you would like to inter­act with the pro­gram and per­sonal time con­straints. Addi­tion­ally, qual­i­fied vol­un­teers may be asked to join our advi­sory com­mit­tee, respon­si­ble for the inter­view process for appli­cant businesses.

Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Provider:

Tech­ni­cal assis­tance providers will offer indus­try– spe­cific assis­tance in areas of exper­tise. Exam­ples may include tax prepa­ra­tion, graphic design, recipe cost­ing, brand­ing and so more. These vol­un­teers pro­vide ser­vices at their con­ve­nience, and La Cocina will match pro­gram par­tic­i­pants with these providers when the ser­vices are offered.

We have found that one-on-one inter­ac­tion often yields the great­est rewards, though we also wel­come any work­shops or activ­i­ties that might be bet­ter exe­cuted in a group.

Men­tors: Men­tors are paired with a spe­cific pro­gram par­tic­i­pant in order to tar­get devel­op­ment in a local­ized area of need. Men­tors will address macro-issues like mar­ket­ing, busi­ness plan­ning and gen­eral emo­tional sup­port for new entre­pre­neurs. These vol­un­teers will sched­ule their own meet­ings with pro­gram par­tic­i­pants, and will report back to La Cocina staff regularly.

Gen­eral Volunteers:

Gen­eral vol­un­teers work with La Cocina staff on events, farmer’s mar­ket, admin­is­tra­tion, fundrais­ing and more. We love our vol­un­teers, so come spend some time with us!

Advi­sory Committee:

The La Cocina Advi­sory Com­mit­tee con­sists of a hand-selected group of indus­try insid­ers who have been cho­sen to lend their exper­tise in the incu­ba­tion of La Cocina pro­gram par­tic­i­pants. You have been cho­sen because of your ded­i­ca­tion to the La Cocina project and because of your valu­able indus­try knowl­edge. The com­mit­tee set-up will allow La Cocina staff to inte­grate your opin­ions, sug­ges­tions and advice into the pro­gram in a way that max­i­mizes your impact and min­i­mizes the time com­mit­ment that indi­vid­ual busi­nesses might put on you.