Conscious Kitchen | Program Coordinator

Help Build the Future of School Food

Every school day, California serves millions of meals to more than 6 million public school students.

At Conscious Kitchen, we believe every one of those meals is an opportunity to nourish students, strengthen local economies, support organic agriculture, and build a healthier, more resilient future.

Our North Star is bold: helping build a school food system where all 6 million California public school students have access to fresh, local, organic food, creating a model for the nation.

Today, Conscious Kitchen works with more than 125 California school districts representing approximately 2 million students. We bring together school nutrition professionals, organic farmers and ranchers, food makers, distributors, chefs, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, funders, and partners to build practical solutions that strengthen the systems behind school meals.

We are looking for a highly organized, resourceful, collaborative Program Coordinator to support the many moving pieces that bring this work to life.

This is an ideal role for someone who loves making things happen: keeping projects organized, following through on details, supporting meetings and events, maintaining strong communication, and making sure important tasks and deadlines do not fall through the cracks.

The Role

The Program Coordinator will work across Conscious Kitchen programs, grants, events, partnerships, and communications to provide the day-to-day coordination that keeps our work connected and moving forward.

Working closely with the Senior Program & Grants Manager and other members of the Conscious Kitchen team, the Coordinator will help maintain timelines and trackers, organize meetings and events, support grant deliverables, gather program data, coordinate outreach, and provide practical support across active initiatives.

Because much of Conscious Kitchen's work is interconnected, this person will also help identify and track the places where programs come together, including the Recipe Project + Recipe Dashboard, Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative, statewide workshops, procurement initiatives, and grant-funded projects.

This is a hands-on role for someone who is thoughtful, dependable, detail-oriented, and excited to support a small team doing ambitious work.

Your Impact

You will:

• Support grant-funded initiatives by tracking timelines, deliverables, reporting requirements, documentation, and upcoming deadlines across active grants.
• Maintain the communication systems that keep work moving, including project calendars, shared trackers, meeting schedules, action items, and regular team check-ins.
• Coordinate meetings, trainings, workshops, and other program activities, including scheduling, participant communication, materials, preparation, logistics, notes, and follow-up.
• Support Conscious Kitchen events before, during, and after gatherings, helping with registration, materials, on-site logistics, partner needs, documentation, and follow-up.
• Track connections across Conscious Kitchen programs and projects so that information, opportunities, commitments, and next steps are shared across the team and nothing falls through the cracks.
• Compile and organize program outcomes, data, stories, and lessons learned to support grant reporting, evaluation, presentations, communications, and program improvement.
• Support partnership outreach by maintaining contact lists and records, coordinating scheduling, tracking follow-up, and helping organize communication with school districts, farmers, food makers, funders, agencies, and other partners.
• Support proposal development and grant submissions through research, document preparation, formatting, gathering required materials, and deadline tracking.
• Support communications initiatives, including gathering content and information for social media, newsletters, blog posts, program updates, and other communications.
• Help coordinate interns and fellows, including assigning routine tasks, communicating priorities, checking in on progress, and helping ensure work is completed on time.
• Provide general program and administrative support wherever needed to help the Conscious Kitchen team work effectively.

The Person We're Looking For

You are the person who helps keep all the pieces connected.

You are highly organized and genuinely enjoy creating order around complex work. You notice details, remember follow-ups, keep track of deadlines, and take satisfaction in helping a team stay one step ahead.

You are proactive and comfortable taking ownership of a task while also knowing when to ask questions. You do not wait for every detail to be spelled out before getting started, and you are good at figuring out the next practical step.

You communicate clearly and warmly and enjoy working with many different kinds of people. On any given day, that could mean coordinating with a school nutrition director, following up with a farmer, preparing materials for a workshop, updating a grant tracker, helping an intern prioritize their work, or gathering information for a newsletter.

You are comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment where priorities can evolve and people work collaboratively across roles. You bring flexibility without losing track of the details.

Most importantly, you care about meaningful work and are excited to contribute to a healthier food system for students, farmers, schools, and communities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in food systems, agriculture, environmental studies, nutrition, public health, education, nonprofit management, communications, or a related field.
• 2–4 years of relevant professional experience in program coordination, project management, nonprofit work, education, events, food systems, grants, communications, or a related field.
• Excellent organizational and project coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and details at once.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated follow-through, attention to detail, initiative, and sound judgment.
• Experience maintaining project trackers, calendars, databases, shared documents, or similar organizational systems.
• Comfortable coordinating meetings, events, trainings, or multi-partner projects.
• Experience supporting grant writing, reporting, research, data collection, proposal development is a plus.
• Experience with communications, social media, newsletters, or content development is a plus.
• Interest in school food, organic agriculture, food systems, sustainability, public education, or related mission-driven work strongly preferred.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office.
• Ability to travel throughout California as needed. Access to a personal vehicle required.
• Spanish speaking is a plus.

Why Join Conscious Kitchen?

This is an opportunity to be part of an ambitious effort to transform school food across California.

You will work alongside school nutrition professionals, organic farmers and ranchers, food makers, chefs, distributors, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic partners working toward a shared goal: making better food available to students while strengthening the food system that supports them.

You will join a small, entrepreneurial team where your work will matter. You will see projects move from ideas to real programs, workshops, partnerships, recipes, purchasing opportunities, and meals served to students across California.

And you will play an important role in making sure the details behind that work are organized, connected, and carried through.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary, commensurate with experience
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage available
• Paid vacation, sick time and holidays
• 401k Plan
• Flexible hybrid work environment
• Professional development opportunities
• A collaborative, mission-driven team committed to meaningful systems change

Conscious Kitchen, a program of Turning Green, is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.

Please send a cover letter and resume to info@consciouskitchen.org with the subject line Program Coordinator | Conscious Kitchen

• Competitive salary, commensurate with experience
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage available
• Paid vacation, sick time and holidays
• 401k Plan
• Flexible hybrid work environment
• Professional development opportunities
• A collaborative, mission-driven team committed to meaningful systems change

Conversational Spanish is a plus