Procurement & Distribution Manager

Procurement & Distribution Manager 2024

Overview

The Mountain Roots Distribution Manager will manage all activities associated with food procurement and distribution at Mountain Roots. Currently the primary activities are Backyard Harvest, a weekly year-round food relief box program, and a seasonal multi-farmer CSA, and the organization is preparing to expand. The position initiates and cultivates producer relationships, partnerships, manages all procurement, distribution logistics, administration, invoicing, tracking, reporting, and leads customer relationships for fulfillment of the Mountain Roots mission. The manager collaborates on marketing, fundraising, and program development. The Distribution Manager will function with a high level of independence, setting goals and designing and leading the development of the project from current to future (desired) state, while maintaining an excellent reputation for high quality, locally grown products, professional customer service, farmer support, and consumer engagement in the local food system. The position is likely to grow with the organization and can play an active, leading role in the development and implementation of a new community kitchen / food hub facility in 2025.

Objectives

• Strengthen local /regional food systems and support local agriculture by supporting and enhancing the production‐to‐distribution-to consumption chain for local producers and small acreage farmers.
• Increase local food access and consumption, promote healthy eating by providing people of all incomes with access to fresh and healthy products.
• Catalyze economic development through the support of emerging entrepreneurs and increased consumption of locally produced food.
• Collectively build healthy, sustainable, and just communities.

Position: 1.0 FTE (full time, exempt)

Compensation: starting at $25/hr moving to salary of $55,000/yr, includes some benefits

Reports to: Executive Director, Holly Conn

Location: Gunnison, CO

Start Date: June 2024 (some flexibility)

Primary Responsibilities

Procurement

Initiate and cultivate relationships with local and regional producers, food hubs, and others for sourcing local food products to fulfill program demands of Backyard Harvest, CSA, and others that might evolve, such as value-added products or intermediary work. Farmer Coordination, relationship maintenance, partnership building. On a weekly basis, source product and place orders, receive, and approve the orders, pay invoices, maintain accurate documentation for finance and grants, problem solve.

Distribution

A. Mountain Roots Multi-Farm CSA

Our CSA embodies a unique relationship between beginning farmer-producers and consumers, which has positive social, economic, environmental, and health outcomes for consumers, small-scale limited-resource farmers, local communities, and the environment. You’ll lead start-to-finish management of the CSA, including:

·      Goal Setting, program design

·      Customer Relations – registration (subscriptions) recruitment, promotion and outreach, communications, and customer service

·      Facilities - preparation and maintenance of aggregation & distribution facility

·      Distribution of shares to members, weekly

·      Food Safety – refine and maintain food safety protocols for food storage, inventory, equipment and premises.

·      Budgeting, payments, and invoicing

·      Refining systems, operations for efficiency and effectiveness

·      SNAP integration, work-trade, and other accessibility initiatives

·      Evaluation and Reporting

B. Backyard Harvest – You’ll collaborate with the Food Security team, and that team’s lead person who coordinates the weekly box-packing and distribution of food relief boxes. A Food Security AmeriCorps member takes the lead on goal setting, program design, promotion and outreach, customer relations, distribution of boxes, evaluation and reporting.

Project Management: Regional Food Hub Connectivity Partnership

This position will manage an active grant-funded project. You will be working in close partnership with five organizational partners and three food hubs on this regional local food effort. You will complete all necessary contract and grant deliverables, reporting, and reimbursement requirements in timely and accurate manner. Primary activities include:

A) expand and connect the infrastructure of five mid-tier value chain enterprises (food hubs) by (i) establishing a new food hub facility in Gunnison, above, and (ii) expanding four hub-to-hub distribution routes to meet increased demand with greater efficiency, frequency, consistency, and reliability; and

B) developing the wholesale market for local/regional specialty crops through a 3-year regional marketing, education, and outreach campaign; an annual series of agritourism (farm tours) events; and five speed-dating events between chefs/buyers and producers in the region. These integrated activities address supply-side and demand-side issues simultaneously. Producers across the region who want to scale up their businesses gain reliable pathways to new, wider markets. New and existing markets gain access to a wider number of producers and products, along with reliable, frequent, and consistent deliveries. The project will increase local food purchases from 344 producers by $3.8M over three years.

·      Facilitate the regional project; work with partners to coordinate efforts accomplish project objectives

·      Lead data quality, monitoring, and evaluation

·      Facilitate steering committee meetings, develop and keep partners on track with timelines

·      Develop program evaluation methods and surveys, and gather and analyze data. Track key program metrics and suggest continuous program improvements based on analysis.

·      Strengthen relationships and maintain regular communication with producers, grocers, institutions, restaurants, caterers, etc. as well as with key stakeholders to identify and better coordinate goal alignment and strategic priorities

·      Manage the grant budget, reimbursement, and reporting *past experience in managing federal grants a plus

·      Co-create and distribute messaging for outreach and publicity

·      Co-author a business plan and operations plan through participation in the group process to develop the new facility – a community kitchen and local food distribution center

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

·      Bachelor’s Degree required, Master’s Degree preferred.

·      Demonstrate 2 years’ experience in supervisory role.

·      Mission-Driven Motivation: work hard, sometimes with limited resources, in a rural mountain community in order to make a difference

• Build Relationships: Establish and maintain positive working relationships with others, both internally and externally, to achieve the goals of the organization. Community organizing and cross-cultural experience helpful; prepared to build relationships with beginning, and immigrant farmer participants as well as restaurateurs, institutions, and other markets.
• Collaboration: Be curious, self-motivated, and listen to understand. Seek to find and answer the bigger questions. Connect the dots or create the dots. Give and expect trust. Show respect for diversity of opinion, experience, and background.
• Communicate Effectively: Speak, listen and write in a clear, thorough and timely manner using appropriate and effective communication tools and techniques.
• Focus on Needs of Stakeholders/ Funding Partners: Anticipate, understand, and respond to the needs of partners in order to meet or exceed their expectations within the organizational parameters.
• Optimism, Creativity, Innovation: Develop new and unique ways to improve the finances of the organization and to create new opportunities. Entrepreneurial-minded.
• Behave Ethically: Understand ethical behavior and business practices and ensure own behavior and the behavior of others are consistent with these standards and aligns with the values of the organization.
• Foster Teamwork: Works cooperatively and effectively with others to set goals, resolve problem, and make decisions that enhance organizational effectiveness.
• Make Decisions: Assess situations to determine the importance, urgency and risks, and make clear decisions which are timely and in the best interests of the organization.
• Organize: Set priorities, develop a work schedule, monitor progress towards goals, and track details, data, information and activities. Excellent time management, prioritizing, scheduling, and organizational skills a must.
• Planning: Determine strategies to move the organization forward, set goals, create and implement actions plans, and evaluate the process and results.
• Solve Problems: Assess problem situations to identify causes, gather and process relevant information, generate possible solutions, and make recommendations and/or resolve the problem.
• Commitment: persevere in the face of challenges, remain dedicated to developing the program’s long-term plan and impact, and have a desire to grow with the company
• Clean driving record.
• Working knowledge of computer software (MS Office, especially Excel database and spreadsheets, social media, Salesforce CRM, website content development, graphic design).

“Plus” Skills

·      Proficiency in Spanish language would be an asset

·      Practical experience in sustainable farming/ranching, grocery/restaurants, food hub development, cooperatives

·      Grass-roots organizing and advocacy for social change

·      Regional knowledge / connections in food systems work, rural communities, and/or in Southwest Colorado

·      Knowledge of state and federal agriculture initiatives

Physical Demands/Work Environment

• Ability to perform varied and repetitive warehouse tasks including manual lifting of boxes and bins between 25 – 50 pounds, in conditions that vary from hot and humid, to cold and wet, and up and down stairs.
• Ability to drive and safely maneuver a 15 passenger van and/or full bed pick up truck with trailer (no special license required, but must pass safe driving test)