Company description

Connecting Cultures Through Farming and Food:
Transplanting Traditions supports food sovereignty in the refugee community through access to land, education and opportunities for refugee farmers to address community food insecurity and the barriers they face in reaching their dreams of farming. The farm provides a cultural community space for refugee adults and youth to come together, recreate home and build healthy communities, and continue agricultural traditions in the Piedmont of N.C.

Job description

Seeking a consultant to strengthen and implement Producer Hub for refugee and immigrant farmers. With a 16 year history of working with the refugee community, and now in its 7th year as an independent 501c3 organization, Transplanting Traditions is at a pivotal phase of organizational development. TTCF operates an incubator farm which provides participating farmers with shared land, farm infrastructure and education as well as direct business management support in crucial areas that are challenging to refugee ESOL farmers including; marketing, customer communication and relations, accounting and management of aggregated sales for a CSA & wholesale food hub. Since 2012, TTCF has been operating a Food Hub for farmers who operate businesses from the incubator, aggregating farmer products to sell to customers, food pantries, restaurants and grocery stores. In the last couple of years, TTCF has built on the model of the Food Hub by developing a Producer Hub that will aggregate business management activities for farmers in a “fee for service” type model. Up until now, these services have been provided to farmers at no cost, however changes to this free model are motivated by a need for increased non-profit organizational financial sustainability as well as long-term security for farmer businesses. The goal of the Producer Hub is to create affordable business management solutions for farmers who participate in the Producer Hub by aggregating business management services. The ultimate goal is to create more security and independence for farm businesses, sustainability for the organization, while also providing a culturally appropriate solution to the business challenges ESOL farmers face.

Project Objectives

Hub Research and Development

Phase I

Timeline May-June

• Analyze the piloted Hub model to identify potential gaps, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
  Research other similar or existing aggregated business management Hub like systems with the goal of strengthening and improving the piloted Hub model.
• Work with stakeholders to identify and then investigate key Hub structural development questions.
• Work with TTCF (stakeholders) staff and farmers to understand gaps in the Hub’s “fee for service” business model as well as research answers to key questions.
• Development of focus groups or other feedback collection methods with farmer participants and staff to gather concerns, questions and input regarding the Hub and the “fee for service” model
• Define scope and responsibility of the Hub as it differs from non-profit activities.
• Research pros and cons of potential legal structures (for example LLC) to house the Hub vs the Hub remaining an addendum to TTCF’s 501(c)3

Phase II

Timeline: July-August

• Using the research, focus groups and other findings from Phase I, finalize the Hub “fee for service” model prioritizing financially sustainability and management of the Hub for the organization while also being as low cost as possible for farmers.
• Present findings to staff to identify any further questions and fine tuning as needed.
• Facilitate the co-creation of shared agreements between farmers and non profit staff around fee for service model and division of responsibilities
• Define necessary staff capacity in management of the Hub and a realistic and feasible Hub management plan that works synchronistically with the management of non-profit activities.

Phase III

Timeline: September

• Work with TTCF finance and accounting team to develop a streamlined accounting and management system for the Hub.
• Develop Popular Education and/or ESOL visually focused communication materials for farmers to explain the Hub and the “fee for service” components.
• Develop a detailed overview manual or guide of the Hub and the “fee for service” model for use in communicating to the public, TTCF staff and other stakeholders.
• Develop considerations for replicating and scaling the Hub - including considerations of the needs, limitations and future development needed to serve other farmers outside of the main TTCF Orange county site

Desired Characteristics & Qualifications of Consultant

• Understanding of non-profit structure and the challenges and opportunities that face the non-profit sector.
• Highly organized, detail oriented and clear communication skills
• Flexibility and willingness to designing the work as needs and information develop and arise
• Ability to design assessments and/or conduct interviews with primary TTCF stakeholders
• Experience working in food systems, with farms or farmers or more specifically with a food hub
• Facilitation skills and prior experience in working with multilingual communities
• Creativity, popular education or alternative education skills or prior experience
• Commitment to working with an organization that is actively resisting white supremacist and/or colonizer organizational operations and cultural practices

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $20/hr +

Application instructions

Deadline

April 28, 2025