Local First Looking to Expand Food Team!
by Zac Rivas, Good Food Finder Development Intern
The demand for locally grown and produced food here in Arizona is increasing every day. By engaging and connecting Arizonans to the farming and food-producing community, we hope to build a more resilient food system, and ultimately increase the strength of Arizona’s local economy. Because of this, we are looking to fill three positions on our team.
All positions will be serving primarily under the umbrella of our Healthy Local Foods Initiatives, which operate under the Local First Arizona Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit.
Local Foods Community Coordinator (Full-Time Staff)
Primary responsibilities involve management of the Good Food Finder website, including identifying ongoing community engagement strategies and implementing communications and outreach, and planning and executing events. Ongoing daily duties include the technical maintenance and customer service assistance of the Good Food Finder website (www.goodfoodfinderaz.com) and the management of Good Food Finder communications and assisting in general administrative Local First Arizona responsibilities and growth.
- Good Food Finder Development
- Maintain Good Food Finder website, ensuring consistent functionality and identifying any areas of design and technical improvement in collaboration with website developer
- Create an outreach plan aimed at current directory listings of ways to encourage ongoing use and promotion of listings
- Devise and implement a long-term engagement plan, identifying a variety of ways to increase benefits for those who have directory listings, as well as opportunities for those who use the directory
- Communications
- Spearhead food-based public communications strategies in conjunction with overarching Local First Arizona approaches, advancing presence of Good Food Finder online directory while simultaneously increasing awareness and support for the statewide food community.
- Manage content, design, and ongoing strategies for food newsletter, The Locavore, to continually grow subscriber base and ensure engaging content and relative Local First Arizona news
- Create and distribute consistent and engaging content for Good Food Finder social media relating to events, partnerships, Good Food Finder profiles, etc., ranging from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram and more.
- Community Outreach Through Events
- Assist Local Food Development Director in the planning and executing of food-oriented events: Food and Farm Finance Forum, Small-Scale Farmer Education Series, Farmer + Chef Connection, World Bazaar, and Beverage Garden at Fall Festival
- With a team, develop events for south Phoenix audience focused on increasing healthy food access and interest in healthy food
- Planning and Development
- Maintain record of larger improvements and enhancements needed and formulate a strategic plan for GFF growth, including potential funding opportunities
- Participate with a team in applicable grant research, writing and editing, and grant fulfillment where necessary.
- Represent LFA on external, relative community events and/or committees: Maricopa County Food System Coalition, Arizona School Garden Network, etc. Substitute where necessary for other team members on other committees.
More information can be found here: https://lodestar.asu.edu/content/local-foods-community-coordinator. The deadline to apply is April 7, 2017.
Two Summer Local Foods Event Interns (unpaid internships)
The focus of this position is event assistance and project coordination. Under the immediate supervision of the Director of Food Initiatives and Local Foods Development Coordinator, the Local Food Event Interns will be tasked with event projects and assignments – of various sizes and types – for the purposes of fundraising, education, and exposure of both the Local First Arizona foundation as well as the organization and businesses they feature.
Depending on the needs of the events that he/she will be involved in, the Local Food Event Intern can expect to be involved in a variety of events, with supervised leadership over one particular component of one event depending on the intern’s external time commitments.
The intern can expect to:
- Coordinate and plan detail-oriented projects as related to various events of differing sizes, including the Farmer + Chef -Connection, Devour Culinary Classic, Food Producer Education Series, Food and Farm Finance Forum, and Certified Local Fall Festival
- Conduct research projects and create surveys to help with target marketing and event follow-up
- Consistently work with team to evaluate for sponsor obligations and any responsibilities needing completed due to possible grant fulfillment
- Create and implement a marketing plan for assigned event project that coincides with overall LFA event plan that reaches any personal networks.
- Contribute a minimum of three relevant blog posts to the applicable Local First Arizona blog platform promoting or recapping event details
More information can be found here: https://www.looksharp.com/organizations/local-first-arizona/listings/phoenix-summer-local-food-events-internship?id=phoenix-summer-local-food-events-internship. The deadline to apply is April 15, 2017.
We look forward to growing our team with passionate, talented individuals who have a love for Arizona and our local food community.
