Company description

The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to cultivating education for sustainable living.

We recognize that students need to experience and understand how nature sustains life and how to live accordingly. We encourage schools to teach and model sustainable practices.

The Center leads systems change initiatives, publishes original books and resources, facilitates conferences and professional development, and provides strategic consulting. We work at multiple levels of scale, with local, regional, state, and national programs.

One initiative, California Food for California Kids® supports systems change by improving children's health, education, and the state's economy while teaching students where food comes from and how it reaches the table.

Job description

Full Job Title:
Statewide Program Coordinator
California Food for California Kids

The California Food for California Kids® initiative is a collaboration between the Center for Ecoliteracy and a network of public school districts committed to serving healthy, freshly prepared school meals made from California-grown food and teach about food literacy.

Position Summary
The Statewide Program Coordinator maintains relationships with school districts and allied organizations throughout California to cultivate, support, and sustain active implementation of the California Food for California Kids program. This position engages with partners through site visits, technical assistance, and network communications for a variety of school community stakeholders.
The Statewide Program Coordinator also supports the grants team and participates in cross-functional team projects in alignment with the strategic goals of the organization.

The Statewide Program Coordinator, California Food for California Kids is a full-time, exempt position. This position reports to and works in close alignment with the Program Manager, California Food for California Kids at the Center for Ecoliteracy.

The position requires superior verbal and written communication skills for multiple audiences, attention to detail, collaboration, dependability, flexibility, and a willingness to travel up to 25% for statewide site visits, national conferences, and/or events.

Responsibilities

• Engage with the California Food for California Kids Network of public school districts and partners through one-to-one emails, phone calls, newsletters, and in-person site visits across the state.
• Encourage, support, and assist the implementation of participation in the program: disseminating resources, facilitating professional development opportunities, and connecting districts with partners across the state and country.
• Support a growing network of K–12 education partners with resources and training, including classroom teachers, garden educators, and representatives from county offices of education.
• Seek opportunities to promote the program by attending and/or presenting at conferences and events, and executing on a communications plan that includes newsletters, social media, success stories, and relevant web content.
• Contribute to program evaluation, reporting, and advocacy efforts through research, outreach, and data collection.
• Employ project management and budget management best practices to support the execution of projects and project phases.
• Assume responsibility for other program duties, as needed.

Requirements

• Minimum two years’ experience working in or with a K–12 school setting, of which a portion is connected to school foodservice operations and/or garden programming.
• Proven professional excellence in written communications, including newsletters, website stories, social media, and formal correspondence.
• Demonstrated excellence in verbal communications: experience with public presentations, conducting professional development, and speaking engagements.
• Computer skills including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Suite, and other cloud-based systems. This is a Macintosh environment.
• Ability to coordinate deadlines and manage multiple tasks, executing assignments with attention to detail and adherence to specifications.
• Flexible as a team player; a proactive person who takes initiative and offers assistance to others, when the need arises.

Preferred Skills

• At least one year of experience as an educator in a K–12 classroom, garden, or after-school program.
• At least one year of experience in a culinary or school food service operations role.
• Basic understanding of federal and state curriculum standards in K–12 education.
• Familiarity with the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and Nutrition Services operations.
• Comfort with and ability to facilitate virtual meetings and coordinate remote group learning.
• Research skills relevant to policy, public health, or environmental organizing and advocacy (i.e. literature review, qualitative and quantitative data analysis).
• Proficiency in conversational Spanish.

How to Apply
Please be sure to include a cover letter with your resume.

The Center for Ecoliteracy is a non-profit organization with generous employee benefits. Salary will be based on experience.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.

About the Center
Founded in 1995, the Center for Ecoliteracy advances ecological education in K–12 schools and is recognized for fostering leadership and systems change, pioneering work with school food systems and garden education, and integrating ecological principles and sustainability into school curricula. Our California Thursdays® program and the California Food for California Kids® initiative are known and respected throughout California and the nation.
www.ecoliteracy.org
www.californiafoodforcaliforniakids.org

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $50,000 to $100,000

Application instructions

Deadline

February 28, 2020