Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC), in partnership with Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations, is seeking a full-time Indigenous Programs Manager to lead our Nourishing Indigenous Food and Foodways in Schools initiative.
Location: This is a remote work position open to any location in Canada/Indigenous Territories
Hours of work: Monday – Friday with flexible hours, provided availability to meet with team members and partners across a range of time zones. We are open to discussing a range of 28-40 hours/week for this contract.
Rate: $38.40 / hour
Deadline for application: Friday June 7th, 5pm PST
Position Summary
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Indigenous Programs Manager will work in collaboration with other F2CC staff, the initiative’s Circle of Advisors, and project partners to advance Nourishing Indigenous Food and Foodways in Schools, a 4-year partnership-based initiative. The Indigenous Programs Manager will be responsible for overseeing the initiative’s multiple workstreams including managing the development of a dedicated grant stream for schools that are located in Indigenous communities or that serve many Indigenous students; the development of an adapted Food is Our Medicine learning journey for the K-12 school setting; and supporting relationship building, project learning, impact measurement, and knowledge sharing.
Specific Duties and Responsibilities:
Relationship building and collaboration:
- Lead meetings including quarterly Stewardship Group meetings as well as project working group meetings to advance the work while creating space for reflection and sharing, continuous learning, and celebration of culture and project milestones.
- Facilitate relationship building and knowledge sharing with and among educators, principals, Elders, Traditional Knowledge Keepers, public health professionals, youth, food providers, and other members of school communities across the country who are connected to the work of nourishing Indigenous food and foodways in schools.
Managing workstreams:
- Guide the development and implementation of an Indigenous school food grant stream with the intention of supporting improved student access to healthy, culturally appropriate foods and engaging students in hands-on activities that build their knowledge and food skills and support Indigenous foodways. This will involve working with the initiative’s Circle of Advisors, F2CC staff, project partners, and others to design the format of the grant stream, promote the initiative, support the application process, and support schools as they implement the grants through online meetings, webinars, and other approaches appropriate to the communities involved.
- Guide the development of an adapted K-12 Food is Our Medicine learning journey in collaboration with Nourish Leadership and other F2CC staff. Tasks will include supporting visioning, discussion and reflection, community outreach and engagement, guiding the work of adapting the content and format to K-12 educators and other members of the school community, coordinating and/or supporting resource development, launching the initiative, and integrating feedback into the continuous improvement of the work.
- Support the coordination of an in-person gathering that will bring together participants from diverse Indigenous school communities to connect and share knowledge, tools, stories, experiences and impacts related to Indigenous food and foodways in schools.
- Support the development and implementation of the initiative’s Knowledge Mobilization Strategy, Evaluation Plan, ways of working, and appropriate protocols to guide the work. This will involve facilitating conversations among the Circle of Advisors, funders, and communities and partners involved and integrating their feedback.
Communications and knowledge-sharing:
- Support school communities by listening to the needs and opportunities they bring forward, and exploring how these needs could be addressed. This may be through documenting and sharing stories of success through the F2CC blog or other platforms, sharing funding opportunities, developing resources and materials, inviting people to share how they have overcome challenges, and supporting school communities with grant applications.
- Support the work’s communications activities including identifying opportunities to maximize language accessibility, support Indigenous language revitalization by having some materials translated into Indigenous languages where possible, and supporting French language requirements and outreach.
- Support knowledge and information sharing about the initiative and its impacts in ways that are appropriate. This will involve approaches such as gathering and sharing stories including successes that communities would like to celebrate, and sharing valuable resources and tools on our Nourishing Relations microsite.
- Support broader knowledge sharing in support of Indigenous food and foodways including supporting the facilitation and membership building of the Indigenous School Food CIrcle, which is co-hosted by Farm to Cafeteria Canada, Canadian Feed the Children and the Coalition for Healthy School Food.
Organizational involvement, project management and oversight:
- Support F2CC’s organizational approach and communications. This will include working with the rest of the F2CC team in its effort to:
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- ensure that Indigenous values and ways of knowing are appropriately and consistently represented within the national farm to school movement;
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- engage in active processes that advance food justice and anti-oppression work including working on ways to increase knowledge among non-Indigenous people that occupy this land;
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- work toward ensuring that F2CCs structures are inclusive and support Indigenous Food Sovereignty.
- Supporting administration of the initiative including:
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- Helping to monitor and maintain the initiative’s workplan
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- Contributing to reporting to funders on the initiative’s activities
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- Supporting fundraising efforts to extend or expand this role and the initiative.
Please note that this type of work is emergent and how it rolls out will be informed by the communities, partners and Advisors involved. There will be much opportunity for you to shape the work and how the initiative unfolds. However, you will also need to be comfortable regularly adapting and shifting to respond to the evolving needs and opportunities that unfold.
Qualifications:
- Lived experience with Indigenous protocols, teachings and worldviews
- Experience working with urban, rural and/or remote Indigenous communities and organizations
- Familiarity with issues related to food security and food sovereignty
- Demonstrated commitment to food justice and anti-oppression
- Minimum 2 years of work experience in community development or food security programming
- Demonstrated experience in community outreach, mobilizing, facilitation, organizing, and capacity building including in an online environment
- Demonstrated experience managing collaborative and community-driven projects, including working with committees and working towards deadlines
- Demonstrated experience managing workloads and multiple priorities
- Values listening and working collaboratively
- Excellent communicator—both oral and written (in English)
- Familiarity and comfort working and facilitating conversations in a digital environment i.e., zoom meetings, google docs, collaborative online tools
- Self-motivated and can work from a home or a partner office (if available)
- Access to a computer and stable internet connection. (A $50 monthly technology allowance will be provided).
Assets:
- Knowledgeable of Farm to Cafeteria Canada and its activities
- Understands the local food to school approach and has experience advancing aspects of it
- Experience working in a non-profit environment
- Communication skills in French / one or more Indigenous language(s)
F2CC is committed to supporting the participation and engagement of the unique and diverse communities we serve. We strive to foster a fair and respectful environment that welcomes people of all cultures, ethnic origins, faiths, gender identity or expression, sex and sexual orientation, ages, abilities and other lived experiences.
Preference will be given to Indigenous applicants and we encourage all those with relevant skills and experience to apply.
To apply: Please send your resume and a one-page cover letter to cwebb@farmtocafeteriacanada.ca
Deadline for application: Friday June 7th, 5pm PST
