Kitchen/Bake House Volunteer FY24

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At Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (FOVA) and its employee Village, dining was an important tradition that brought people together, much like it does today. Inside the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fort, meals were made in the Kitchen and served to HBC officers, clerks, and visitors in the Chief Factor's House Mess Hall. The wives and daughters of these men, who were often Native American or Métis women, ate separately in the Ladies' Mess Hall. In addition to cooking, many activities vital to the good order of the fort’s daily routine would have taken place in the Kitchen, including dish washing, heating shaving water, candle making, pickling meats and vegetables, and polishing the clerks’ shoes, to name a few. Kitchen volunteers may also perform demonstrations in the Bake House, where bread was made for people who lived inside the fort and sea biscuits for fur brigades and sailors.

Volunteers are absolutely essential to the visitor experience at the park’s reconstructed Kitchen. It is through their interpretive presentations and cultural demonstrations that visitors can come to understand the roles of the fort's skilled laborers, the work they performed, and how their work contributed to the operation of Fort Vancouver and the HBC in the Pacific Northwest. To help make the visitor experience as accurate as possible, all shop work is to be focused solely on activities conducted by kitchen staff on behalf of the HBC during the fur trade era.

The primary goal of a kitchen volunteer’s work is to help visitors understand the people and function of the Kitchen and Bake House, their connection to the HBC's Fort Vancouver, and the role that they played within the greater Columbia Department of the HBC. Work is performed under the direction and supervision of NPS staff.

Start Date - 2024-01-01

End Date - 2024-12-31

Activities include: General Assistance;Other;Tour Guide/Interpretation;Visitor Information