Company description

The South Seattle Community Food Hub (SSCFH) is a community-driven initiative designed to address systemic gaps in the local food system and food insecurity. A core element of the SSCFH is the development of a multi-use shared food facility that can provide much needed cold storage, aggregation, processing, and distribution infrastructure to regional food system stakeholders, with an emphasis on advancing racial equity and development of community-led solutions that prioritize the needs and assets of local growers and hunger relief organizations. The SSCFH facility, which is slated for development to begin in early 2023, is located at 915 S 96th Street in a warehouse adjacent to Food Lifeline’s headquarters.

Community stakeholders advising the development of the SSCFH have identified three goals: 1) Increase the capacity, resiliency, and collaboration between hunger relief agencies across the region through shared infrastructure; 2) Expand access to aggregation, packing, storage and processing infrastructure for regional growers to increase the quantity of locally grown food used by the hunger relief sector and to facilitate market access to other institutions and; 3) Support and promote a more local, just and sustainable food economy by prioritizing food hub resources, services and infrastructure to BIPOC, Immigrant and Refugee -led and -serving growers and community-based organizations that have not traditionally had access to such infrastructure.

Job description

As a member of a community-defined, community-led project, the Project Development Manager holds a personal and professional commitment to and knowledge of racial equity principles and brings this skillset to the SSCFH, its Advisory Committee (AC), and project stakeholders. The Project Development Manager ensures that community and project stakeholders voices, experiences and needs are centered and integrated into food hub design. The Project Development Manager effectively works with consultants, contractors, and AC/subcommittee members to ensure timely and appropriate fulfillment of roles, responsibility, and deliverables; ensures effective community engagement strategy design, feedback loops, feedback evaluation and integration into a recommended program design. The Project Development Manager possesses strong project stakeholder relationship development skills, understands, and interprets nuanced relationship management and stakeholder dynamics.

This role will work in partnership with independent contractors and the AC through community engagement work, the beginning of construction, value chain work and programmatic design, and the selection and implementation of a governance model. This role will be the face of the SSCFH to the community it resides in and the ones it intends to work with and serve. As the leader of the project, the Project Development Manager will guide the project through key moments in development and transition. This role will have oversight and responsibility over all functional areas pertaining to the development of the emerging SSCFH.

Skills/Experience Desired

• Reside in Puget Sound Region. At least 6-7 years leading significant community projects involving diverse stakeholders.
• Deep experience in effectively leading diverse stakeholders through conversations involving race, equity, diversity, inclusion, justice, anti-racism.
• Practiced at forward-looking thinking, innovation, and long-term strategic planning; open to changing situations and opportunities.
• Experience applying food justice frameworks in work or community.
• Experience and skill in problem-solving and conflict resolution through equity lens. Experience in consensus building.
• Knowledgeable in best practices of how to structure and manage advisory groups to be empowered and effective.
• Demonstrated past success in leading projects to accomplish key benchmarks in support of a project plan and timeline and in partnering with advisory committees, consultants, and other staff to do so.
• Knowledge of the Puget Sound Region food system and its challenges, barriers to access, infrastructure needs and food system solutions for those operating in emergency food system and grower/producer spheres.
• Experience with community development and engagement as well as solutions-based design.
• Able to connect and build relationships with project stakeholders, set transparent and clear expectations for their engagement and overall project outcomes.
• Deep understanding of the intersections of race, poverty, and food insecurity.
• Comfortable stepping into a space with a complex history.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of emerging Food Hub.
  • Build, organize, and manage all efforts pertaining to development of SSCFH.
  • Ensure mission, operations, programs, resource development remain aligned.

Areas of Oversight

People

• With AC, identify organizations and individuals that should be included either on AC, sub-committee, on ad-hoc basis, or in future project iterations. Develop clear paths for effective engagement with identified organizations and individuals.
  • Support AC in achieving final deliverables and in creating and utilizing strategic subcommittees.
  • Partner with Project Manager and AC/Subcommittees to define meeting goals, develop agendas to achieve goals against project timeline, and share notes and action items.
  • Partner with AC and Personnel Subcommittee to hire future consultants and positions and to guide project work.
  • Oversee independent contractors. Manage scope of work and be day-to-day contact.
• Position SSCFH to be a service provider to the agricultural sector, particularly prioritizing BIPOC, Immigrant, Refugee growers/producers.
• Guide project through choosing and implementing a governance model in partnership with AC and governance consultant.
• Conduct outreach and stakeholder engagement that will assist in informing programming for SSCFH. Maintain ongoing relationships with community stakeholders. Create feedback loop that allows for continued discussion and relationships.
• Identify challenges while uncovering strengths, other opportunities, and resources among AC that could be harnessed to further the goals of AC and project outcomes.

Construction & Capital Assets and Equipment

• Be contact for construction management firm, general contractor, architect throughout construction.
• Draft grant budgets. Manage grant relationships related to construction and opening of facility.
• Identify and purchase equipment in accordance with financial processes developed with AC.

Systems and Processes

• Oversee programmatic choices and implementation through construction of facility and opening of facility.
• Create, implement food safety and sanitation policies in alignment with state and federal policies and best practices.
• Create and implement structure, policies, operations, programs, and partnerships for all functional areas of SSCFH that ensure effective work-flow and advance equity and justice.
• Identify technology platforms needed for SSCFH.

Business and Financial Modeling

• Partner with Value Chain Specialist and AC to develop processes to collect stakeholder feedback. This includes developing strategy, interview questions, interview type, data collection and consolidation.
• Support value chain assessment to better understand availability, volume, pricing, market for local agricultural products.
• Using information learned in value chain work, partner with AC to design and implement financially viable business model for SSCFH that adheres to project’s mission to prioritize BIPOC, Immigrant, Refugee growers/producers and BIPOC, Immigrant, Refugee -led and -serving organizations.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, varies DOE, $140,000.00 - $155,000.00

Application instructions

Deadline

January 31, 2023