Sustainable Food & Farm Community Mobilizer

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Seeks a Community Mobilizer to work on 2012 Farm Bill.
The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) is hiring a Community Mobilizer to assist with CFSA’s advocacy efforts related to a potential 2012 Farm Bill and other food and farm grassroots advocacy campaigns as needed.

About CFSA
CFSA is a non-profit membership organization that works to create a local and organic food system in North and South Carolina. We help people in the Carolinas grow and eat local, organic foods by advocating for fair farm and food policies, building the systems family farms need to thrive, and educating and organizing farmers and the communities they serve. Based in Pittsboro, NC, CFSA is the oldest and largest sustainable agriculture organization in the Southeast. We have a thirty-two-year record of successfully uniting farmers, consumers and businesses to build a just, healthy food and farming future.

JOB SUMMARY:
The Community Mobilizer is a thirty hour per week paid position. The position is expected to start beginning of June and is funded for 8 months to coincide with the end of current congressional terms. Weekly schedule and exact start/end dates will be determined at the time of hire. The term of the position may be extended subject to availability of funds.

The Community Mobilizer must be highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to prioritize and complete a wide variety of tasks. Organizers must be comfortable interacting with people from a wide variety of backgrounds; communicating the importance of Farm Bill reform; confident in asking people to become CFSA members and/or to financially support our work through donations; and to engage people to be active in regional chapters and campaigns.

The Community Mobilizer will report directly to the Director of the Sustainable Food NC Coalition, and will work closely with the Executive Director. The Community Mobilizer is based in the Pittsboro, NC office. Some night and weekend meetings and extensive travel throughout the Carolinas will be required.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Working with CFSA Tour Coordinator to plan, coordinate and implement visits to at least 25 farmers markets and at least 12 restaurants, markets or other farm-to-fork businesses across the NC and SC, focusing on the following key regions: Triangle, Piedmont, Triad, Asheville, Charlotte, Upstate SC, and Charleston.
• Working with the CFSA Tour Coordinator to activate our membership by reaching out to key ‘friends and allies’ to host informal barn-storm tour meet-ups in their area and/or train members to get farmers listed on the local food finder.
• Monitoring federal Farm Bill legislation;
• Analyzing the relevance of the Farm Bill proposals to the sustainable and organic farming communities in the Carolinas;
• Assisting CFSA communications staff to develop informational materials about the 2012 Farm Bill to distribute to CFSA’s grassroots network;
• Communicating this information to CFSA's members and partners using a variety of electronic and print methods (e.g., action alerts);
• Providing regular Farm Bill briefings to CFSA staff;
• Coordinating grassroots outreach about the Farm Bill with CFSA’s 2012 Barn Storm Tour, with special emphasis on connecting with the members of the Carolinas’ congressional delegation while they are in their districts;
• Coordinating grassroots outreach about the Farm Bill with prominent regional and state events (e.g., conferences & forums);
• Assist CFSA team in formulating sound organizing strategies;
• Leverage existing CFSA members, board and staff to build relationships and heighten visibility of important Farm Bill issues in all of CFSA’s regional service areas;
• Identify, recruit, and develop community leaders for CFSA’s team of “super-activists”;
• Recruiting new CFSA members;
• Track, report, and evaluate weekly activity;
• Develop, with supervisors, a simple tracking system for grassroots advocacy activities taken and reported by CFSA members.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS:
The performance of this position will be evaluated using:

• The development of informational materials about the 2012 Farm Bill for CFSA grassroots network.
• The number of community events hosted by the Community Mobilizer.
• The number of organizations and individuals recruited to support beneficial provisions in the Farm Bill proposal;
• The number of new grassroots contacts in each congressional district in the Carolinas;
• The number of community leaders willing to serve as CFSA’s super-activists in each regional chapter.
• The development of a simple system to track and communicate the votes of the Carolina congressional delegation on desired Farm Bill provisions.
• The number of new e-mails signed up to receive CFSA’s eNews.
• The number of new CFSA members recruited.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in political science, communications, agricultural policy or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated interest in public policy with an emphasis on agriculture, environment, community economic development, nutrition or similar;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Experience in volunteer management, meeting facilitation, and/or community relations
• Experience with public policy analysis and translational writing for a broad public audience;
• Facility with basic research (e.g., laws, proposed bills);
• Experience with community organizing techniques, including the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs;
• Proficiency with MS Office Pro applications.
• Ability to work occasional evening and/or weekend hours.
• Ability to travel through the Carolinas; including valid driver’s license.
• Deep commitment to using grassroots advocacy to affect lasting public policy change to advance the values of sustainable and organic agriculture.
• Commitment to creating and strengthening lasting working relationships throughout the diverse communities of CFSA’s service area.
• Creativity, flexibility, and a sense of humor, and a passion for community organizing.

Expected start date: June 1, 2012. CFSA offers generous vacation and personnel policies, and health insurance benefits.

CFSA is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women and people of color. To apply, submit a resume, list of professional references and a cover letter explaining why you want to work to promote local, organic agriculture to apply@carolinafarmstewards.org by May 7, 2012, including “community mobilizer” in the subject line. You will receive electronic confirmation of your email submission. No calls, please.

View the Full Job Description at: http://carolinafarmstewards.org/jobopening.shtml

Download Full, Print-ready Job Description

SCOPE OF WORK
Tour Coordinator

BARN STORM LOCAL FOOD TOUR OF THE CAROLINAS:
Enabling Farmers to Expand Local Food Marketing

June 1, 2012 – October 31, 2012

1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The Barn Storm Tour of the Carolinas is a “Charles Kuralt-style” local food tour of the Carolinas, structured as a campaign trail. During the Barn Storm Tour of the Carolinas, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) will visit farmers markets, farm to fork eateries, and other local food institutions in North and South Carolina to 1) highlight the good food work happening across the region and 2) increase engagement in the local food and organic farming movement.

2. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Our primary goals are:

• Raising public awareness of and engagement in local food and sustainable agriculture – towards building a regional food system that is good for farmers, healthy for families, beneficial for our economy, and protective of the environment; and
• Expanding markets and increasing sales for farmers in the Carolinas by helping growers utilize the CFSA Local Food Finder as a marketing mechanism.

Specifically, the project will 1) add a critical mass of farmers and local food and farming vendors to the CFSA Local Food Finder; and 2) engage and activate grassroots support for comprehensive reforms in the 2012 Federal Farm Bill that relate to local, organic agriculture. Our objectives are to:

• Advance local food and organic farming via raising visibility and public awareness.
• Increase CFSA’s influence by adding new members and building our support base.
• Help farmers tap into new and expanding markets through the Local Food Finder.
• Help consumers locate and purchase locally produced food.
• Engage grassroots activists to support key provision of the 2012 Federal Farm Bill.
• Enhance social media capabilities and opportunities to support and advance our missions

3. KEY TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES:
As population continues to grow, farming operations must become urban-friendly and the key to accomplishing that is to educate consumers on the value of local, sustainable food and to show consumers where and how their food is produced. By advancing the digital skills of farms and farm workers, this project will help farm businesses increase their visibility, viability and value. Tobacco-dependent, economically distressed rural areas suffer poor economies in part due to a lack of resources and isolation from high-value markets. Teaching digital skills can engage rural areas with urban markets.

As farmers improve their social media fluency, they will not only be able to reach a broader consumer market through online food guides and the local food campaigns, but also strengthen farm loyalty. The best advertising is word-of-mouth advertising. As farmers show what they do on the farm and the quality of the products they grow, they strengthen customer loyalty and consumer confidence. Consumers are more likely to purchase from them, and tell others to purchase from them. In addition, when farms introduce new products through social media, they can directly and easily inform the consumer and gauge interest immediately

The project will encourage and assist farmers in creating dynamic online marketing profiles (such as entries on the CFSA Local Food Finder) with diverse content including photos, video, and social media links. Enriching content optimizes the online visibility of various marketing platforms on popular search engines and thereby helps all participating farms reach a broader market. Directory sites such as online food guides are particularly attractive to search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bing) due to the wealth of relevant content centralized in one place. Ultimately, dynamic online profiles help consumers find the farms and farm to fork eateries they are looking for, and help farmers reach the market they need.

4. RESPONSIBLITIES:
The Tour Coordinator will be responsible for expanding local food marketing, specifically all tour planning, communication, and logistics, and will be directly responsible for adding new listings to the new and improved CFSA Local Food Finder (to launch in May). The Coordinator will be also work closely with the Community Mobilizer to coordinate public engagement at tour stops.

• Work with CFSA Community Mobilizer to plan, coordinate and implement visits to at least 25 farmers markets and at least 12 restaurants, markets or other farm-to-fork businesses across the NC and SC, focusing on the following key regions: Triangle, Piedmont, Triad, Asheville, Charlotte, Upstate SC, and Charleston.
• Work with the CFSA Community Mobilizer to activate our membership by reaching out to key ‘friends and allies’ to host informal barn-storm tour meet-ups in their area and/or train members to get farmers listed on the local food finder.
• Activate, coordinate and train volunteers to help farmers and food businesses in their area add their listings to the CFSA Local Food Finder.
• Add at least 100 new farms, farmers’ markets, restaurants, grocery stores, and food artisans to the CFSA Local Food Finder.
• Update at least 50 existing listings on the CFSA Local Food Finder.
• Add 200 new Facebook friends and Twitter followers; sign up 100 new people to receive the eNews; Increase our blog followers by 50.
• Leverage and enhance social media following by adding high-quality content (ex. short video, vivid photos, blog stories) that captures exciting food and farm stories all across the Carolinas.

8. QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, or related field OR demonstrated ability to write and manage blogs and social media, make quality photos, recruit and train volunteers and coordinate events;

• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Experience in volunteer management, meeting facilitation, and/or community relations;
• Experience with community organizing techniques, including the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs;
• Proficiency with MS Office Pro applications, Wordpress, and social media applications required; Graphic design (Adobe CS or similar), web design using CMS, and videography software (Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut Pro or similar) a plus, but not required;
• Ability to work occasional evening and/or weekend hours;
• Ability to travel through the Carolinas; including valid driver’s license;
• Creativity, flexibility, and a sense of humor, and a passion for sustainable agriculture and local food and farms.

View the Full Scope of Work at: http://carolinafarmstewards.org/jobopening.shtml#coordinator

Download Full, Print-ready Scope of Work

Expected start date: June 1, 2012.

CFSA is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women and people of color. To apply, submit a resume, list of professional references and a cover letter explaining why you want to work to promote local, organic agriculture to apply@carolinafarmstewards.org by May 7, 2012, including “tour coordinator” in the subject line. You will receive electronic confirmation of your email submission. No calls, please.

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