Food Access Coordinator

Food Access Coordinator

Location: Newport, Vermont (hybrid model)

About Green Mountain Farm-to-School

Green Mountain Farm-to-School (GMFTS) is a nonprofit organization promoting the health and well-being of Vermont's children, farms, and communities by connecting schools and farms through food and education. We do this by building school gardens, delivering local food to schools and institutions, and educating the community about healthy food choices. Our programs focus on increasing access to local foods throughout Vermont. Our dedicated team of professionals is working to create a more just and equitable food system by engaging a variety of stakeholders to promote food sovereignty, economic and environmental sustainability, and community resilience. For more information about GMFTS, please visit www.greenmountainfarmtoschool.org.

Position Description

Green Mountain Farm-to-School seeks a dynamic, organized, detail-oriented individual with customer service skills to coordinate food access, and our summer meal and school food procurement programs.

The Food Access Coordinator reports to the Executive Director of Green Mountain Farm-to-School with direct support to both the Farm Direct and Farm-to-School teams, as appropriate and necessary.

Roles and responsibilities span four core elements including:

Summer Meals:

• Coordinate The Lunchbox summer meal program, including Department of Education application and reporting requirements, community outreach and promotion, educational activities, and site monitoring during 8 weeks of meal service in partnership with major stakeholders.
• Maintain the truck maintenance schedule and order all necessary supplies and equipment for meal site programming.
• Coordinate with partner organizations to build collective capacity, coordinate place-based educational workshops in conjunction with The Lunchbox summer meal site and as part of the school year.
• Coordinate tracking, storage, and dissemination of produce for the Market Basket program during Lunchbox meal sites.

School Food Procurement and Menu Planning:

• Collaborate with farm-to-school team on initiatives aimed at improving school meals.
• Coordinate GMFTS’ School Food Procurement Program, including: account outreach and relationship building, training facilitation, and marketing and communications in alignment with the Vermont Harvest of the Month resource as needed and necessary.
• Regularly meet with school accounts to determine areas of need in relation to local food purchasing and set action plans accordingly.

Food Access:

• Identify, develop, and coordinate new and existing food sovereignty initiatives, in collaboration with major partners and stakeholders, as appropriate, including collaborating with area food pantries, backpack programs, and food relief efforts to ensure quality food is available to vulnerable and marginalized populations.
• Develop content for social media posts related to food sovereignty and access.
• Serve on related working groups as deemed appropriate and necessary.
• Develop compelling brochures, flyers, and fact sheets about our programs and how to access local food.

General:

• Develop and implement evaluation tools; collect, analyze, and report data for program evaluation.
• Provide general support to Green Mountain Farm-to-School, as necessary.

Preferred Qualifications (willing to train the right person)

• Experience in program coordination, food access initiatives, cooking or teaching (a variety of backgrounds could thrive in this position)
• Experience in outreach or community engagement; demonstrated ability to establish effective and productive working relationships with diverse groups
• Relevant experience to customer service, sales, and marketing
• Knowledge of local food systems and sustainable agriculture
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with exceptional attention to detail
• Strong public speaking and interpersonal skills
• Experience working in a community-based setting and with children a plus
• Good computer skills, including Google Workspace and Microsoft Office
• Self-directed and can take initiative
• Ability to prioritize and manage workload in a fast-paced, rapidly growing nonprofit environment
• Valid driver’s license

Desired Qualifications

• Solutions-oriented and willingness to be creative and think outside the box
• Passion about equality in our local food system
• Knowledge of culture and challenges of the NEK and greater Vermont
• Desire to be a part of a team

• 27 - 32 days of annual paid time off (5 additional days after three years of employment)
• Employer sponsored healthcare (80/20) or healthcare stipend ($3,000.00 annually)
• Health Expense Reimbursement ($1,000 annually)
• Simple IRA contribution with employer match up to 3% of salary
• Reimbursable work-related travel expenses (mileage rate of .61 per mile)
• 5 hours of paid wellness time per pay period
• Flex time, teambuilding, staff recognition/celebrations and professional development opportunities
• Annual evaluation and raises based on performance and COLA rates
• Access to workplace local food buying club