The Food Action Committee project Our Food: Reconnecting Food and Community is seeking a full-time Community Food Coordinator for the Halifax office for a maternity leave replacement.

The overarching goal of the Our Food Project is to strengthen communities' relationship to food by helping to build ‘positive food environments’. These are the physical and social spaces that help to normalize healthy eating by making it easier to grow, sell, and eat good food. We work at the individual, community and systemic level to increase the availability of nutritious food as well as our access to it, and actively involve citizens in the development of more localized food systems.

This position is one of two project co-leads of a highly collaborative 7 person team. Co-leads are responsible for management of the current project, long term planning of the work, fundraising and partnership building. Fundraising for 2017 and beyond will be a priority during the term of this position. Additionally, this position is the lead on the Policy Change and Civic Engagement work of the project, and responsible for fulfilling policy related deliverables.

The position will support and be supported by the rest of the project staff, based in Halifax, Cumberland County, Cape Breton and sister project in New Brunswick. The position reports to the EAC’s staff directors.

The Community Food Coordinator duties include:

• Co-leading project management duties, including but not limited to ensuring that reports are submitted to the funder, managing the project budget, ensuring that project deliverables are being met, supporting other team members in project challenges;
• Co-leading project fundraising, grant writing, and partnership development;
• Working with the rest of the Our Food Project team to identify opportunities, common challenges and knowledge/infrastructure gaps in the wider community as they relate to community food systems and working with community partners in order to address these;
• Contributing to food policy change initiatives and community engagement initiatives. Successful applicant will develop and deliver at least three policy workshops to community partners. Duties will also involve advancing municipal, provincial and federal food policy campaigns, through policy research, coalitions/partnership development, meetings with policy makers, campaign planning, and networking;
• Public speaking, representing the Our Food Project work in a variety of public fora;
• Supporting project communications, including, but not limited to blogging, social media, traditional media;
• Working with project team to assist with data collection on the impacts of the program;
• Supporting the work of the Food Action Committee and the Ecology Action Centre;
• Other duties as required.

Interested candidates should possess the following skills and experience

• Considerable project management experience, including but not limited to managing a project budget, ensuring deliverables are met, project reporting, fostering coordination amongst team members;
• Considerable experience managing staff and volunteers;
• Proven ability to network and build partner relationships;
• Fundraising experience, including grant writing and other partnership building;
• In depth knowledge of food policy issues in Nova Scotia and experience translating this knowledge to others;
• Creative problem solving skills;
• Strong organizational skills, friendly and patient;
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written including facilitation and presentation skills;
• Willingness to learn, experiment and adapt;
• Comfortable in a highly collaborative organizational structure;
• Leadership skills and self-direction.

The following skills are also an asset:

• Experience using developmental evaluation methods;
• Detail oriented.

The Ecology Action Centre is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from traditionally underrepresented groups such as women, visible minorities, First Nations, and persons with disabilities. Diversity is a stated value of EAC, and is a strength that we seek to cultivate within our community. It is the responsibility of every employee of EAC to foster a culture that embraces and promotes diversity.

Terms of Employment

• Start: early/mid June 2015
• End: mid-July 2016
• 36.5 hours per week @ $23.00/hour
• Cost-shared benefits plan and 4 weeks paid vacation per year
• Hours: Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Some evening/weekend work will be required.
• Location: This position will be based at our Halifax office; however, it will require regular travel to the other project sites in Cumberland County, Cape Breton and New Brunswick.

TO APPLY

Please email a cover letter and resume (including 3 references) to Aimee Carson, Community Food Coordinator, at:
Aimee at ecologyaction.ca

Please submit your application in the form of a pdf document with required elements in the following order: cover letter, resume, references.

DUE DATE: Thursday, April 30, 2015, 4pm.

Interviews will likely take place May 11^th and 12^th.

We thank all applicants for their time and interest, however only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

The Ecology Action Centre was founded in 1971 and is one of Nova Scotia’s most active environmental organizations. The Centre welcomes new members and volunteers: https://ecologyaction.ca/

Source: GoodWork.ca