Community Food Coordinator (Infrastructure & Capacity Building) – Halifax

The Food Action Committee project Our Food: Reconnecting Food and Community is building a project team for its second phase. We are seeking several positions, including Community Food Coordinator. This position will report to the Food Coordinator. The overarching goal of Our Food is to strengthen communities' relationships to food. Our Food aims to rebuild food production (gardening) and preparation skills (cooking, preserving, and root cellaring) and foster community-based food solutions.  We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy and access good, healthy, local food. This is the foundation of happy, healthy communities and environments.

The Community Food Coordinator (Infrastructure & Capacity Building) duties include:

• Developing and delivering community food infrastructure programs, including root cellars, greenhouses, new & expanded gardens;
• Developing and delivering capacity building and resource sharing initiatives with our community partners, such as skill sharing workshops, tool libraries, seed banks;
• 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;
• Assisting with the development of food infrastructure, e.g. garden beds, root cellars, etc.;
• Writing blog posts for Food Action Committee blogs;
• 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:
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• Experience developing and delivering workshops or other popular education activities;
• Creative problem solving skills;
• Passionate about community food initiatives;
• Have a knack for identifying the skills that already exist in a community and the needs to be met;
• Strong organizational skills, friendly and patient;
• Experience with project management;
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written;
• Experience cooking with local food, preserving, gardening;
• Experience working with diverse communities;
• Willingness to learn, experiment and adapt;
• Leadership skills and self-directed;
• Basic building skills are an asset;
• Driver’s license and/or experience with a bike trailer is an asset.

Terms of Employment

Start: Mid to Late March 2013
End: Feb 14, 2017

6 month probationary period
35 hours per week @ $20.00
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 2 references) to Marla MacLeod, Food Coordinator, at marla@ecologyaction.ca. Please submit your application in the form of a pdf document with required elements in the following order: cover letter, resume, references. Please specify in your cover letter which position you are applying for.   You are welcome to apply for more than one position; however, please submit separate applications (in separate pdf files) for each application.

DUE DATE: Monday Feb 18, 2013 4 pm

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

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 the Ecology Action Centre.  Moreover, diversity in the EAC community is a strength that must be cultivated.  It is the responsibility of every employee of EAC to foster a culture that embraces and promotes diversity.

The Centre welcomes new members and volunteers:www.ecologyaction.ca