Job description

POSITION: Harvest Coordinator

ORGANIZATION: Food Forward (501c3 non-profit), www.foodforward.org

HOURS: Fulltime – Salaried with benefits (40-45) hours per week (M-F, with possible weekend day substituted) at our North Hollywood office. Position will begin Nov. 1st, 2012

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
Food Forward’s mission is to reconnect people with people – through food – by bringing together volunteers and neighbors to share in the gleaning and distributing of locally grown food from private homes and public spaces, with 100% going to feed the hungry in our community. We engage volunteers to harvest locally grown food, which is then distributed to local food pantries and organizations serving those in need. Since forming in 2009, Food Forward has rescued over 1.1 million pounds of produce. Food Forward is looking for an individual who will become our fulltime Harvesting Coordinator. This person will be responsible for maintaining our Harvesting and Property databases, working closely with fruit donors, manage a over a dozen volunteer Property Scouts and recipient agencies who receive the food we harvest/recover. This person will work closely with property owners who have fruit to donate by gathering essential harvesting and logistical information and other organizational metrics for our database, and coordinate upwards of 20-30 harvest events or “picks” every month. They will also work closely with the Volunteer Coordinator to ensure that all scheduled picks are filled with an adequate number of volunteers and will oversee/coordinate the produce delivery to assigned recipient agencies. This person will oversee, maintain and recruit a growing corps of volunteer Property Scouts across Southern California and work with our larger properties to schedule ‘Big Picks’ and coordinate the logistics of our Private Picks (for local corporate clients, faith-based organizations, school groups and non-profits.)

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
The Harvest Coordinator will report to the Managing Director and will be responsible for the following:- Maintaining relationships with 800+ registered fruit donors and with 30+ recipient agencies (food pantries, shelters, agencies or donation centers)- Managing an intricate custom database of over 800 properties and over 2500 volunteers. - Scheduling 20+ picks a month and working directly with the Volunteer Coordinator to ensure that each pick has enough support for its size and quantity of trees- Train, recruit and manage our corps of volunteer Property Scouts to ensure that they are gathering and reporting property/tree information correctly and in a uniform manner.- Working with our Executive Director to identify properties that are suitable for Private Picks, then coordinating the logistics for each of these events with property owners - Frequent written and verbal communication with property owners and recipient agencies - Updating our Wordpress site and database as related to the above responsibilities.- Act as a Food Forward liaison with outside agencies such as CA Dept. of Agriculture, Dept of Water & Power and LA City, regarding important information on public orchards and potential fruit quarantines.- Recording harvest notes, pounds and property details and recipient agency - Responsible for upkeep and management of harvest equipment.

QUALIFICATIONS
Ideally, candidate will have a strong interest in hunger and food justice issues. We are looking for an extremely detail-oriented self-starting individual who enjoys organizing, moving and collecting data and can work efficiently and comfortably on a website to manage large amounts of detailed information. MS Excel, Wordpress and ease of learning custom database systems is essential. Candidate should be very proactive, extremely personable and able follow up with property owners of various personalities and temperaments. Candidate must have a strong knowledge of local fruit tree varietals and fruit tree care. Candidate should be highly versed in Los Angeles, SFV and other Southern California geography. Other qualifications include:- Bachelors Degree in a related field- Proven effective data management skills (You will be tested) - Knowledge of locally grown tree varieties, including harvest season, tree size and shape, fruit qualities (You will be tested) - Strong knowledge and comfort with Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook and other social media. - Strong knowledge of LA and the SFV geography, neighborhoods and streets (You will be tested)- Experience in food justice work desired- Strong people skills- Flexible, a team player, able to work well under pressure- Comfortable working in a fast paced open-space environment - Comfortable working at a start up or young non-profit desired- A valid driver’s license and ability to easily navigate the SFV - Willingness to work some weekends- Bilingual in English and Spanish is preferred

COMPENSATION: $35,000/year + health insurance, cell phone allowance.

To apply, please send a letter of interest in the body of an email describing why you are interested and what you are able to offer the role of Harvest Coordinator. Please attach your resume in PDF format and send to Meg, Managing Director, at info@foodforward.org with the Subject Line reading "Harvest Coordinator (first and last name)"

Compensation

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Application instructions

Deadline

September 28, 2012