Who We Are:

FoodCorps is a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy. We do that by placing motivated leaders in limited-resource communities for a year of public service. Working under the direction of local partner organizations (host sites and service sites), we implement a three-ingredient recipe for healthy kids. Our service members:

• Teach kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from
• Build and tend school gardens
• Bring high-quality local food into public school cafeterias

The efforts of FoodCorps’ service members transform school food environments into oases of health, opportunity and joy.

What We’re Looking For:

FoodCorps seeks a highly organized, relationship-oriented non-profit programs professional who is comfortable in a fast-paced office environment. Reporting to the National Program Director, the Program Manager for the Central and Southern Region is responsible for managing state teams in six states, the backbone support network for our AmeriCorps public service program. Currently, these states include Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, and North Carolina. The Program Manager will work collaboratively with two additional Program Managers to deliver impeccable program oversight, management, communications, and support across FoodCorps’ regions. Additionally, the Program Manager will occasionally serve as the project lead for special national projects that benefit all of the regions. This full-time position will be based in FoodCorps’ Portland, Oregon office.

Who You Are:

You are an experienced, highly organized and efficient non-profit programs professional. You have exceptional stakeholder and project management experience and skills, including remote management, and you love interacting with people from all walks of life. You are known for your enthusiasm as well as your ability to address setbacks, troubleshoot issues, and seamlessly direct multiple priorities at the same time. You thrive on developing and implementing efficient systems. You are team oriented. You are at home developing meaningful relationships with a balance of innovation and accountability. You are diplomatic and compassionate, with the ability to clearly communicate a vision for success and the urgency of addressing setbacks. You have strong organizational development skills, including the ability to balance program innovation with program administration. You have a good relationship with technology and are not afraid to learn new software systems.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Effectively manage state teams individually and as a regional cohort
• Collaborate with the regional management team to develop management and communication strategies that can be used with all state teams
• Facilitate knowledge sharing amongst your regional cohort on topics like farm to school and school gardening best practices, as well as on best practices for managing the FoodCorps program in their state
• Co-supervise the fellows in your region, including managing their work plans, responsibilities, deliverables, projects and timesheets
• Conduct regular check-ins with and semi-annual evaluations with state teams
• Troubleshoot AmeriCorps service member issues and site management issues and ensure that site challenges are swiftly addressed
• Ensure efficient, consistent, compliant implementation of our program on the state and local level
• Monitor the sites in your region for compliance and program fidelity via annual site visits and risk assessments
• Lead the work of the regional management team on specified internal projects
• Collaborate with other Programs Department staff on developing and implementing training, recruitment, site selection, and human resources policies with host sites and fellows
• Build expertise in your region’s food system, farm to school, and school garden landscape
• Liaise with regional representatives of other national networks (USDA, NFSN, etc.)

Required Skills:

• Experience working with networks and partnerships of internal and external stakeholders, such as co-workers and partner organizations
• Strong and effective interpersonal and group communication skills across many modes (in-person, telephone, email, and video conferencing)
• Excellent organizational and process management skills with impeccable attention to detail
• Strength in goal-setting and problem solving, often under tight deadlines
• Ability to coach, mentor and train others
• Culturally competent and able to relate well with a diverse population
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly and thoroughly
• Minimum of three years of demonstrated success in a professional office setting

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with and passion for social justice, the food movement, non-profit work, public service, education and/or community development and organizing
• Familiarity with food system organizations and networks
• Prior FoodCorps experience
• Experience utilizing Salesforce (or similar databases), Microsoft Office, Google systems, and other cloud-based technologies
• Previous supervisory experience
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, specialized training welcome

About FoodCorps:

FoodCorps is a fast-growing national nonprofit that provides a scalable response to the epidemic of childhood obesity and a means for training a new generation of leaders in the fields of food, education and health. Currently supporting a class of 182 service members and 17 FoodCorps Fellows, FoodCorps recruits emerging leaders for a year of service giving vulnerable children knowledge of, engagement with, and access to healthy food. Working under the direction of high-impact local partners, our teams teach kids what healthy food is in the classroom, give them hands on engagement with how it grows in school gardens, and enable them to eat it every day in school cafeterias that now source food locally.

Our Identity: FoodCorps is a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy.

Our Mission: Together with communities, FoodCorps serves to connect kids to healthy food in school.

Our Vision: We are creating a future in which all our nation’s children––regardless of class, race, or geography––know what healthy food is, care where it comes from, and eat it every day. Through our work, future generations will grow up to lead healthier and more productive lives.

To learn more visit www.foodcorps.org.

How to Apply:

The first review of applications will begin on February 20, 2015. We will continue to review applications after this date until the ideal candidate is found. To be considered, submit your résumé, cover letter and salary requirements to FoodCorps via Hiring Thing:

https://foodcorps.hiringthing.com/job/20662/program-manager-central-southern-region

Candidates invited to compete for the position should expect to complete sample projects and test workdays.

People of color, people with disabilities, veterans and LGBTQ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. FoodCorps is committed to a diverse workplace, and to supporting our staff with ongoing career development opportunities. FoodCorps, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its employment decisions.

FoodCorps provides reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees as required by law. Applicants with disabilities may request a reasonable accommodation at any point in the employment process.