Urban Seeds

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Urban Seeds seeks Movement (Operations) Manager

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Urban Seeds seeks a Movement Manager with demonstrated commitment to social and economic justice and the skills, passion and drive to lead the organization into the future. The Movement Manager will be tasked with leadership and pursuit of Urban Seeds’ mission and vision, managing and supporting a dedicated staff, cultivating relationships with the communities that support and are supported by Urban Seeds, and procuring resources to sustain organizational stability and growth. The Movement Manager will work directly with the Board of Directors and staff to implement our strategic plan, enhance and execute fundraising strategies, and plan and manage daily operations.

Please indicate your interest by emailing your resume and a cover letter in which an essay response to “What is your vision to diminish food insecurity in Vanderburgh County”, is addressed. The essay response itself should be no longer that one page. Our email address is urbanseeds.org@gmail.com. Interviews will be held on Monday February 4thfrom 5 – 7 PM. You will be contacted to schedule your 30-minute interview session.

Role Qualifications

The Movement Manager will be thoroughly committed to Urban Seeds’ vision, mission, and approach. All candidates should have proven leadership, coaching, and relationship management experience. Concrete demonstrable experience and other qualifications include:

  • At least 3 years of management experience; track record of effectively leading outcomes-based programs
  • Strong social justice orientation with an understanding of and commitment to food justice
  • Experience working with and developing programs in underserved communities
  • Ability to develop and implement a fundraising strategy that includes funding from diverse sources
  • Unwavering commitment to quality programs and demonstrated ability to use different types of data effectively to evaluate programs
  • Excellence in organizational management with the ability to coach staff, manage, and develop high performing teams
  • Fiscal management sensibilities to ensure financial health of the organization
  • Past success working with a Board of Directors with the ability to cultivate existing board member relationships
  • Strong understanding of marketing and public relations functions with the skills to engage a wide range of stakeholders and cultures
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills; a persuasive and passionate communicator with excellent interpersonal and multidisciplinary project skills
  • Passion, idealism, integrity, positive attitude, mission-driven, and self-directed

Role Responsibilities

  • Provide strategic leadership to ensure ongoing programmatic excellence
  • Oversee fundraising and development efforts with a view to diversifying Urban Seeds funding streams to support existing program operations and expand capacity to implement our strategic plan
  • Sustain a positive environment at Urban Seeds by maintaining collaborative culture and cooperative working relationships within and outside of the organization
  • Oversee and support the active engagement of Urban Seeds board members, project work groups, partnering organizations, funders and volunteers
  • Develop, maintain, and support a strong Board of Directors: serve as ex-officio of each committee, seek and build board involvement with strategic direction for the organizations’ operations
  • Establish consistent quality of finance, administration and human resources systems and processes needed to achieve strategic goals
  • Lead, coach, develop, motivate and inspire the Urban Seeds team to achieve the organization’s mission and vision
  • Ensure effective systems for rigorous program evaluation to track progress, and regularly evaluate program components, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the board, funders, and other constituents
  • Raise Urban Seeds’ visibility as a leader in our field of expertise and serve as the organization’s representative to all external stakeholders including but not limited to funders, organizational partners, the food industry, media, government and other agencies

Year 1 Measurable Outcomes 

  • Pending grant approval, provide oversight for the community bulk buying club and the food systems online platform
  • Maintain a list of local, state, and federal grant opportunities, and assist in development of grant opportunities
  • Attend Monthly Board meetings and the twice/year retreats with our non-profit mentor
  • Create/send monthly newsletter via MailChimp; write a weekly blog post; Daily engagement on and management of social media
  • Raise $20,000

2 of the following 3 outcomes 

  • Coordinate nine shop/cook on a budget demonstrations
  • Integrate with three existing organizations to further to further our strategic initiatives
  • Represent US at one monthly community event at which an alignment of mission is present

 

 

 

From Urban Seeds to the EVV Area Food Council and Back Again…

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During times of change and growth, it is easy to get caught up in the planning, the excitement, and the transition details. Urban Seeds (US) may have seemed quiescent over this past year+, and in some ways that has been true. We have not had a strong presence tabling at community events for instance, or talking about local food systems in a group venue. The good news is that the Evansville Area Food Council (EAFC), which is an extension of US, picked up some of that work. And now, it is the EAFC that has gone quiet…

The Back Story

In mid-2015, US was approached by the Welborn Baptist Foundation to assess our capacity to develop an area Food Council. At the time, the Board of Directors of US was down to 3 members. Due to routine life experiences of babies being born, professional obligations, and moving out of town, our Board had dwindled from a robust dozen members to three. Two of the three of us were quite busy with professional and family commitments, so that we were challenged to maintain a meaningful connection to our community, let alone grow our Board members.

Thus, when the Welborn Baptist Foundation reached out with the inquiry of our next steps, we readily agreed to pursue the development of an area Food Council. Welborn generously provided funding for training on the basics of Food Councils for the then-President of the Board and myself, as well as funds to initiate the Council. In January 2016, we convened the first EAFC meeting. Approximately 50 community members were invited whose work or volunteerism touched on access to healthy food; we included educators, chefs, school nutrition directors, non-profit directors of shelters, after-school programs, the Food Bank and food pantries, and business leaders. This group identified community strengths and opportunities regarding food access and health, and we agreed to continue to meet monthly, which we did for all of 2016.

Projects

We immediately identified a “low-hanging fruit” project for which we enthusiastically provided support: the Community Wellness Coordinators at Purdue Extension had just begun a Food Rescue pilot program in a local elementary school, for which we helped to study regulations and the further opportunities for change in this area.

Along the lines of mitigating food waste, we were thrilled to partner with the Change Maker/GAP students at the University of Evansville as they sought solutions to the excessive amount of food being tossed into the trash in their school cafeteria. We provided mentorship for sorting through regulatory issues, and were very proud of their successes as they worked with the cafeteria vendor to disseminate leftover foods within the network of shelters and pantries. As well, they received top honors at the presentation of their project to their peers and other community mentors!

Additionally, over the course of that year, we were able to provide a small grant to a program being piloted at Patchwork Central, called Fruits and Veggies Rx, which facilitates access to fresh produce by utilizing a “prescription” from a physician.

Taking it to the next level of non-profit excellence

As the EAFC members continued to brainstorm opportunities and partnerships within our community that would further our Mission and Vision, we were once again fortunate to be approached by Welborn Baptist Foundation with the opportunity to be mentored by a consultant who specializes in non-profits with a Social Justice mission and vision. We’ve been meeting with JD Levy and Associates for several months now, focusing on creating a strong foundation for success in our organization. As a 501c3, US is eligible to apply for grants, both from local, state and federal entities, including government grants. These grants will allow us to fund programs of great impact to our community, those that would indeed support the health and well-being of our community related to access to healthy food, while supporting a vibrant local foods economy. Stay tuned as we continue to explore opportunities!

Transition

To that end, the EAFC has been folded into Urban Seeds. Our current efforts have taken us back to the basics: we are working with our mentor/consultant on Board Development, which includes job descriptions and the expectations for Board members, a Theory of Change schematic, a database of our current and future partners, writing our story in a way that is compelling, and timeline for task accomplishment. This may not be as exciting as the actual projects with which we intend to engage in the coming months, but this foundational Board Development is paramount to the long-term success of US, and indeed, any non-profit. We are grateful for the generosity of Welborn Baptist Foundation for supporting us in this manner.

We are seeking to mindfully grow the Board, with the essential criteria for consideration as a member being a passion for Food Justice – be that delving into food policy, connecting with farmers to discuss a robust local food economy, creating meaningful partnerships with other non-profits or businesses that have a Social Justice focus, fundraising, to name a few of the opportunities. Please visit our website; we would love to hear from you, to answer your questions, and to meet with you in person to discuss your interest in US as we endeavor to create a meaningful presence in southwest Indiana.