Position Description
The Food Justice Planning Initiative (FJPI) is seeking a part-time Coordinator, for an average of 10-15 hours/week
to coordinate the Nutrition and Healthy Cooking Education Strategy Area implementation efforts identified within the FJPI Strategic Action Plan for each area, and manage the week-to-week operations of the Strategy Areas, including community engagement, leading and/or supporting stakeholder meetings, interfacing with the Leadership Teams of both the FJPI and the strategy area, supporting the strategy areas’ overall strategic direction and planning, and maintaining communications and resources.
Purpose of FJPI Nutrition and Healthy Cooking Education Strategy Area: Increase regional educational opportunities related to cooking and healthy eating.
- Improve nutrition and healthy cooking education among people experiencing food insecurity in geographic regions that are most food insecure & least resourced and/or who do not have consistent storage, equipment, preparation, and cooking access.
- Improve the capacity to provide more nutrition and healthy cooking education programs in the community by those agencies, organizations and community members already serving the region through improved networking.
- Our vision: “Can you imagine the positive health outcomes from a sovereign community which has the tools they need to educate themselves on nutrition values and cooking methods? Our Nutrition and Cooking Education (NCE) strategy area seeks to harness the ideas in the community by way of understanding the variety of cooking and nutrition education resources existing in Western North Carolina (WNC). We are also interested in discovering the areas that have the need for NCE but not the resources. Across the region, nutrition and cooking educators work in our communities to transform the abundance of foods we have in Western North Carolina into delicious wholesome meals. When we can incorporate all our unique experiences and cultures, our impact can reach a larger audience with no one left out. With shared knowledge and resources, no one must start from scratch to make a difference in our unique communities. We meet monthly to have conversations around the various ways we all address the same concerns. At these meetings we also connect, exchange information and share upcoming projects or events with the hope to build a more just and equitable food system that connects us to each other.”
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Engage and support the strategy area to ensure that identified food system changes and policies are moving toward implementation, in alignment with FJPIs stated goals, values, budget, and equity guidelines.
- Expand initiative participation and input, by engaging a diverse, representative group of stakeholders, including residents, community groups, and decision makers from the 18 WNC counties and the Qualla Boundary in the work of both Strategy Areas.
- Participate in and/or coordinate all strategy area meetings which includes crafting monthly agendas, communicating the agenda item requests and finalized agendas, providing facilitation as needed, and providing Coordinator Report at every meeting in coordination with leadership from the strategy area.
- Maintain regular communications with Nutrition and Healthy Cooking Education members pertaining to emergent or ongoing opportunities, activities, questions, and requests.
- Communicate to the public and maintain communications tools including email and social media
- Partner with the FJPI Bookkeeper and or Project Manager to provide monthly reports, with budget tracking and reporting for the Strategy Area.
- Support reporting, invoicing, and communications efforts related to contracts and grant funding.
- Maintain regular communications and meet at least monthly with the leadership representatives of thestrategy area, as well as the FJPI Project Manager.
- Support the WNC FJPI when applying for grants to meet the strategy area’s needs.
- Represent WNC FJPI as necessary or appropriate at collaborative meetings and initiatives outside the strategy areas aimed at increasing food security across the region.
- Lead and support community engagement, outreach, assessment, and implementation efforts of the strategy area in order to involve diverse, representative stakeholders from across all 18 counties and the Qualla Boundary within the WNC region.
- Coordinate outreach and community engagement activities of the strategy areas in concert with other outreach and community engagement activities across the FJPI, including maintaining regular communications with the FJPI Project Manager and other Strategy Area Coordinators as appropriate.
- Organizing virtual/in-person learn-in events, for members to experience the work of partner communities/organizations.
- Coordinate with Assessment Consultant on overall WNC FJPI ongoing assessment needs, and lead the NCE community assessment to identify gaps in the cooking/nutrition educational needs across the region
- Supervise and coordinate interns and volunteers of the strategy areas as needed and appropriate in coordination with Project Manager.
Qualifications
- The successful candidate will be experienced coordinating large-scale, community projects, and working with urban and rural food systems, community organizing, food justice, and racial/cultural equity issues.
- They will possess excellent networking, community relations, conflict resolution, interpersonal, and oral and written communication skills and demonstrate leadership, self-motivation, and ability to coordinate work with collaboratives, neighborhood groups, and government officials.
- The successful candidate should work well independently with minimal supervision. Prior work experience or an equivalent combination of education and work/volunteer experience will include a minimum of four years work in community organizing or development (food system, food distribution and/or nutrition education preferred)
Additional Qualifications
Required:
- Experience working with community volunteers, diverse communities and groups, and others working within the food system.
- Experience coordinating diverse stakeholder groups
- Program or project management
- Demonstrated professional writing skills (including social media)
- Fluency with Google Drive, Microsoft office suite, social media
- Availability to work occasional evenings and weekends including some overnights for professional development or industry conferences
- Reliable vehicle and willingness to travel locally and regionally as appropriate
Preferred:
- Experience/familiarity with food system issues in WNC
- Bilingual - English and Spanish
- Management of networks or coalitions
- Familiarity with basic web content management
- Event and conference organizing
- Grant-writing, donor development and fundraising
Compensation and Duration:
- This is a contract position, paid through monthly invoicing by the initiative’s fiscal agent at the rate of $35-40/hr DOE. There are no formal benefits associated with this position.
- The initial contract will have a duration of one year from April 2023, with possibility of extension.
- The FJPI will reimburse the Coordinator for mileage for approved travel at the federal rate, per the FJPI Travel Policy.
- The Coordinator is expected to provide their own transportation, internet, work space, computer, and cell phone. Office supplies will be provided on an as needed basis.
Application Process
To apply for this position please send the following items via email to Diana Manee-Buskirk at [email protected] by March 30th, 2023:
- A resume highlighting relevant experience
- A cover letter addressing your experience with the following:
- Community organizing/development work - food systems related or otherwise
- Working in a self-motivated, limited-supervision capacity
- Community engagement and outreach efforts
- Rural or urban nutrition and healthy cooking education programming
Email the Cover Letter and Resume as one PDF file and the title of the email should be listed as “Last Name_NCE Coordinator”. Ideally, the successful candidate would be able to start work by the week of May 1st.