Community Horticultural Project Coordinator

We're recruiting for a project co-ordinator to lead a new project to discover and share unknown but thriving heritage crops in the Midlands, along with the stories of the people behind them, and the cultivation and seed saving skills required to safeguard them.

Key Requirements: This role is to manage the National Lottery Heritage Fund project ’Sowing your seeds – heritage crops for a resilient future’, We are therefore looking for a skilled and motivated individual with a proven track record in managing community projects within a charity framework. You will be equally skilled at public delivery as well as the administrative management of community projects. You will have relevant horticultural knowledge, be skilled at building networks within the community, and be able to design and deliver workshops and presentations, alongside the basic skills of project management

Hours: Full Time (35 hours per week)

Duration: Fixed Term contract for up to 24 months.

Salary: £28,000 to £30,000 per annum

Role subject to DBS Check: No

About us:

At Garden Organic we care about organic growing, composting, seed conservation, research and citizen science. Our small but hugely knowledgeable and committed team is backed by a family of members and volunteers, all dedicated to growing food and flowers in harmony with nature. We are an established, experienced and innovative membership charity, working in communities around the UK and campaigning for organic practice which protects and promotes life above and below the soil. Now in our seventh decade, we are also home to the vitally important Heritage Seed Library a living collection of 800 rare vegetable varieties that otherwise would have died out.

Our mission is to show people how to be organic growers and in doing so, we strive to be a great place to work, volunteer or partner with. We care about what we do, how we do it, and the impact we make. We believe that our time is now – when people are actively seeking positive contributions that they can make in the face of biodiversity loss and climate change.

About the role:

Your role will be to lead a new project to discover and share unknown but thriving heritage crops in the Midlands, along with the stories of the people behind them, and the cultivation and seed saving skills required to safeguard them.

Delivery of the project will include:

• Social media, publicity and engagement activities for a Midlands seed search.
• Collaborate with key contacts and community organisations to design and deliver events, such as workshops, interviews and other knowledge gathering and sharing activities.
• Develop, deliver and process the seed search & coordinate assessment trials.
• Development of materials, including seed saving resources & presentations.

You will be reporting to our Head of HSL and your core responsibilities and main duties are as follows:

• Responsible for the operational management of the National Lottery Heritage Fund project.
• Develop, nurture and manage relationships with new and existing partner organisations, including close working relationships with committed project partners who will be supporting the project.
• Develop and deliver the seed search processes for the project.
• Assist with the development of resources, including seed production guidelines.
• Manage the effective delivery of activities in line with set targets, objectives and milestones outlined in the project plan.
• Responsible for budgetary management of the grant funding
• Develop an effective programme and project collaborations with external organisations, to ensure that our work can reach out to the widest possible audience.
• Maximise PR associated with the project.
• Ensure effective communication with line manager, wider HSL team and project partners regarding the progress of the project.
• Produce operational reports and updates for the project as per the reporting timetable.
• Liaise with Garden Organic wider support teams as required such as HR, Finance, and IT as required.
• Ensure safeguarding requirements are met for all staff and volunteers involved with this project.
• Ensure that Garden Organic’s Equal Opportunities policy is adhered to, and its principles promoted.
• Contribute as required to Garden Organic’s policy development work.
• Lead as spokesperson for the project and represent it at appropriate events.
• Ensure that Garden Organic’s vision, mission and values are upheld.
• All other duties as required by the organisation and commensurate with the post

What we are looking for:

We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic and passionate, with a genuine interest in community projects and sustainable practices, particularly in organic horticulture and seed saving.

You will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, crucial for proactively engaging and collaborating with individuals, community groups and other organisations.

You will be organised, flexible and efficient, with a solid track record in community projects, including planning, execution, and evaluation. Experience with the National Lottery Heritage Fund or similar funding bodies would be a plus.

What we can offer:

• Salary: £28,000 to £30,000 pro-rata depending on experience
• 25 days Holiday plus bank holidays and additional leave at Christmas (pro-rata)
• Additional long service holiday
• Group Pension Scheme with 8% employer contribution
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Salary Extras benefits platform (Instant discount scheme and health, wellbeing and financial support)
• We Care benefits platform (With access to virtual GP consultations, nutritionist support, get fit programmes, smoking cessation and further health and wellbeing support)
• TOIL for additional hours worked
• Life Assurance
• Garden Organic membership

About the NLHF project:

The biodiversity of cultivated vegetable seed is vital for food security and the natural environment; however, the current tendency for monocultures and hybrid varieties risks whole crops being destroyed by new pests, diseases and climatic changes. Open-pollinated plants are resilient, as they can adapt to these challenges, via genetic diversity.

Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library has been at the forefront of seed conservation for decades. This project will safeguard newly discovered vegetable varieties, important to the communities that grow them. The more varieties of vegetables we can bring back into use, the greater our range of options to develop more resilient plants. This project will discover and share unknown but thriving heritage crops, along with the stories of the people behind them, and the cultivation and seed saving skills required. In 2025 the library will be 50; our mission to find and reintroduce rediscovered crops remains highly relevant.

We will gather unique and at-risk vegetables with communities across the Midlands, working through allotments, community schemes and other groups. We will do this by working with growers to identify and document the varieties being cultivated, understand their motivations and experiences, and analyse the success of these crops.

We will highlight the individual heritage stories through the communities and people who already act as 'seed guardians' increasing the number and relevance of varieties loved by communities in the Midlands. Their stories and cultural significance will be central to this project. We will do this through interviews, workshops and events to bring growers and their stories together.

We will foster community connections between food growers, seed savers, food centres and other local networks, by creating opportunities and events to raise awareness, and share knowledge and activities around heritage food. This will include, for example, cafes that use produce from community gardens, seed swapping networks and other community platforms to reach and connect new audiences.

We will develop new resources to support growers to cultivate, harvest, save seed and tell their story and cascade that learning to others. This includes developing and expanding best practices and protocols for seed bank management to be used by the HSL and beyond. We will do this by field visits, coordinating seed growing trials and by researching existing studies on seed production methods. We will organise workshops, seminars and events to share insights on sustainable seed saving to the gardening community, both within and beyond the Midlands. We will put these skills back in the hands of a larger number of people through both face-to-face activities and by sharing across all our communication platforms and networks.

We will bring new volunteer ‘Seed Guardians’ forward as essential conservation stakeholders, including a focus on the agency of those from migrant communities who have brought their own varieties and knowledge to this country.

We will collaborate with Warwick University’s Vegetable Seed Bank to identify heritage varieties currently held in long term frozen storage. We believe the best way to conserve varieties is to get them back in use and we will reintroduce underutilised varieties to growers.

We will safeguard the future of the HSL through better management of stock seeds, including increasing our knowledge of seed cultivation for a wider range of crops and improving practices around seed cultivation, processing, drying and storage at our HQ.

The project will increase cultivated genetic diversity, building an understanding of the resilient species in our changing climate and adding to the national inventory of crops available for growing and breeding. For those people who have developed their own heirlooms and selected varieties that grow well where they live, their efforts and skills will be recognised in the legacy of this permanent, national collection.

Further details and applications in the Further Details lnk above.