Garden Educator

Local food and gardening

Hiring: Garden Educator and Community Engagement Coordinator

Organization: PACT Urban Peace Program

Location: Lawrence Heights and Rexdale Garden allocations, Toronto/GTA

Availability: April 27th, 2026 - Oct 30th, 2026 40 hrs / week

Position Type: Full-time (seasonal)

Compensation: $23.00/hr, 10 vacation days, company benefits plan

Do you have a passion for educating the community and youth about local food systems? Love working outside?

The PACT Urban Peace Program is looking for an Educator and Community Engagement Coordinator!

PACT Grow-to-Learn (GTL) teaches schools and communities about food and gardening. GTL feeds families and seniors in under-resourced neighbourhoods, it creates safe, green spaces for pollinators, and it transforms communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Our organic school gardens/urban farms provide safe, experiential, and positive learning environments and help to raise awareness of important issues related to healthy eating, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and food security in our schools and local communities.

Reporting to the Director of Operations and Fundraising (Acting), the GTL Educator and Community Engagement Coordinator will provide a single point of contact while overseeing, scheduling, coordinating, delivering, promoting and documenting all garden and orchard based educational activities, workshops and programming provided by the PACT Program during the 2026 growing season. Managing an assigned budget, they will be responsible for purchasing, preparing and applying all required materials and equipment to support PACT’s GTL educational activities and workshop delivery.

The GTL Educator and Community Engagement Coordinator will actively communicate with the host and feeder school communities to promote the use of the farm as a living classroom and to support the integration of the garden and workshops into relevant curriculums and classroom activities. They will also continue to develop and add to the existing proprietary GTL workshop and educational activities documentation including detailed instructions, teacher notes, and summer programming along with designing new workshops (e.g. food preserving workshops for community members) and activities based on demand and feedback from the various communities PACT serves.

The GTL Educator and Community Engagement Coordinator will also work with garden staff to plan and host community events, and assist with the Fresh Food Box Program.

• Post‑secondary diploma or degree in education or teaching, or degree/diploma in a related field of study including environmental science, sustainable agriculture, food systems etc.
• Minimum of 6 months of direct teaching experience (practicum, summer camp, etc.)
• Knowledge and experience delivering hands‑on educational programs for children/youth
• Experience documenting, designing, and developing hands‑on community and/or school based educational, environmental and/or culinary programming/workshops

• Experience managing a small budget and purchasing required materials to deliver educational programming
• Experience collecting and tracking statistics and data
• Knowledge and experience working with young people with various special needs a definite asset
• Knowledge of and experience with organic and school / community gardening an asset
• Knowledge and skills in food safety, healthy cooking and nutrition an asset
• Knowledge of and experience with food insecurity issues and programming an asset
• Demonstrated capacity and sensitivity working with challenging, at‑risk and underserved individuals and communities experiencing marginalization, mental health issues and poverty an asset
• Demonstrated ability working effectively in both a self‑directed and team environment
• Demonstrated initiative, leadership, flexibility and creativity
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Strong administrative and organizational skills and attention to detail
• Demonstrated proficiency in the Google Suite of cloud‑based applications:
  Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Drive etc.
• Demonstrated ability and discretion in protecting the privacy of others and…