Local Food Retail Coordinator (Maternity Cover)

Job title: Local Food Retail Coordinator (Maternity Cover)
Organisation: Sustain the alliance for
better food and farming
Gross Annual Salary: £45,338 full-time pro rata (post offered at 0.8 FTE). This is a pay level 6 salary. This salary
increases annually in April each year according to Sustain’s pay scale and progression, subject
to satisfactory performance. In addition, Sustain matches pension contributions up to 5% of
gross salary.
Hours: 0.8 FTE (4 days per week)
Location: Role is office-based in Cambridge Heath, London. Sustain offers working from home up to half of
working hours, on request and subject to agreement after probation.
Position type: Maternity cover (9 months)
Annual Leave: 25 days Annual Leave based on 0.8 FTE (comprises of 16 days Basic Annual Leave + FTE proportion
of public holidays + office closures) rising annually by 2 days to a top limit of 29 days.
Closing date: 10am, Tuesday 23 January 2024
Equal opportunities: Sustain is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive employer, including recruiting for
diversity. Read more about our approach here.
Right to Work: Entitlement to work in the UK. Sustain is not able to assist with applications for work
permits.
Other details: Cycle to Work scheme available on salary sacrifice basis.

About Sustain

Sustain is a powerful alliance bringing together around 100 organisations
nationally – and hundreds more at local and regional level. We believe everyone should have
access to healthy and sustainably produced food that protects people, animals, and planet.
Working together, we run highly effective and creative campaigns, advocacy, networks, and
demonstration projects, aiming to catalyse permanent changes in policy and practice, and to
help equip more people and communities with skills as change-makers.

About Sustain’s work on Local Food

While this is a relatively new project, delivered under Sustain’s Good Food Economy theme, our
alliance has a long history working on local food in all its forms, from groundbreaking work on
food miles in the 1990s, helping to steer the lottery programmes supporting Local Food, to more
recently making the Case
for Local Food to inform the Government’s Food Strategy.

For Sustain, local food is more than the proximity between farm and consumer; it focuses on the
myriad benefits associated with models that embody the local food ethos, accompanied by a
social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

Localised food systems can play a huge part in community renewal, providing more and better
jobs in neighbourhoods, keeping money in local economies, delivering more for climate and
nature on farms, and creating more responsive and adaptable supply chains. They are an
important route to market for agroecological farmers, reducing emissions from transport,
refrigeration and waste, and support more mixed farming systems. 

Why now? 

In brief, the timing for local food is critical as we recognised local food economies can: 

• Support trade for farmers as they navigate reform of agricultural payment schemes.
• Help engage people with food systems, fostering greater awareness and responsibility for
  its impacts at a time of climate and nature emergency and ultimately building demand and supply
  for local food.
• Build resilience in the face of fragile, overcentralised, and overstretched supply chains
  with an increased demand for food from more localised, sustainable and independent retail and
  other forms of supply.
• Address the dominance of a handful of supermarkets that has created a power imbalance which
  could threaten the future of UK fruit and veg supply and reduce resilience.

To address these challenges, Sustain and partners want to build a collective voice and plan for
alternative supply chains to create opportunities for concerted policy support, investment, and
profile to compete.

About the project

Overarching aim of the role: To develop a multi-organisational programme to catalyse better,
fairer, and more resilient trading in local food, to support nature friendly farmer-focused
supply chains across the UK. 

The project started in May 2023, thanks to funding from the Rothschild Foundation, who have
also funded complimentary programmes being led by the Landworkers’ Alliance.

The main workstreams of the role our outlined below, which have been started and take place
over the course of 2 years (current end date April 2025):

Workstream 1 – Growth Plan

Develop a growth plan for increased retail market share for independent retail over the next 10
years, to help diversify supply chains and drive routes to market for agroecological produce.

Note: We are not suggesting we can deliver it in full alone, rather we will advocate that
Government, local and regional authorities, entrepreneurs, local development funders and other
players adopt and implement this.

This plan should include: 

• A targeted increase in the number of enterprises active in direct/short supply chains and
  the percentage of local, sustainably produced food sold, with a focus on socially motivated
  enterprise.
• An increase in the number of farms (adopting and using agroecological methods) able to sell
  into diversified trading outlets and platforms, thereby reaching new local retail and trading
  mechanisms.
• Identification of gaps in critical food infrastructure across the UK e.g., abattoirs,
  processors, storage and refrigeration, packing, logistics and delivery, hubs, IT systems; and
  prioritising investment in those areas with best potential to support growth in diversifying
  farm to retail opportunities.
• Attention to communities/locations most in need of renewal and where food can play a key
  role, rather than only affluent parts of the UK.

Workstream 2 – Advocacy for Local Food Infrastructure Fund and other relevant policy
levers

Encourage other investors to support the growth plan (WS1) through investment, ideally as a
formal Local Food Infrastructure Fund for the UK. This would also include:

• Advocacy to get Government, local and regional authorities to adopt the growth plan and
  targets.
• Encouraging investment at a local level (e.g. through local authorities), sector specific
  and national level (e.g. UK Shared Prosperity Fund).
• Engaging other charitable, public and innovative private finance and impact investors.

Workstream 3 – Research/Evaluation

• Track the market share local food sold through independent retail.
• Develop metrics that are persuasive to socially motivated investors and decision-makers:
  Benefits of these supply chains to agroecological and climate-friendly land management, farm
  incomes and resilience, and indicators of social and economic benefits, such as jobs, job
  security and quality, multiplier effect, purchase, and consumption of healthier foods.
• Provide economic models of change: analysis of money flow in supply chains and building on
  good practice examples, and how these could respond to the changes needed to deliver on climate
  and nature targets, and for community wealth building.

The project has some budget secured to bring in support for WS1 (to support writing and
consultation of the Growth Plan) and WS3 (collection of data). We envisage that future phases
of the programme would include amongst other strands: securing investment for the sector;
delivery of the Growth Plan; detailed mapping to identify localised needs and opportunities;
national and local advocacy for complimentary policies; a large-scale public communications,
media and marketing campaign. 

Tasks and responsibilities 

For the 9-month maternity cover role, the coordinator will be responsible for the delivery of
Sustain’s funded project on Local Food Retail. These responsibilities will include: 

• Overseeing the development of a national Growth Plan for Local Food Retail (WS1). In
  particular:
  • Overseeing the running of the Local Food Growth Plan in collaboration with the Landworkers’
    Alliance and other partners
  • Planning and delivery of consultation events for local food practitioners and enablers
    around the country (travel may be required)
  • Analysis and write-up of enabler consultations to develop a set of key recommendations for
    the Growth Plan.
• Establishing research methodologies related to local food:
  • Recruiting a data partner, and working with them to establish methodology for measuring or
    estimating local food retail market share baseline data
  • Working with partners and colleagues to develop metrics linked to local food systems that
    are persuasive to socially motivated investors and decision-makers.
• Running a working party and engaging with other partners in governance of Sustain’s Local
  Food Retail Project and sister projects
• Managing Sustain’s communications related to Local Food:
  • Maintaining the Local Food Growth Plan communications strategy and plan, including website
    maintenance and content creation.
  • Identifying reactive opportunities to promote local food in the media.
  • Managing other Sustain communications related to local food and retail.
  • Working internally with other Sustain led projects (Farming Policy and Bridging the Gap) to
    ensure work is coordinated and complementary.
• Advocacy for local food with Defra, DLUHC and BEIS in follow-up to Government’s National
  Food Strategy and Levelling Up White Papers, and UK Shared Prosperity Fund with specific
  advocacy activities that lead to:
  • Government involvement in development of growth plan (WS1) and ideally adoption of it.
  • Creation of Local Food Infrastructure Fund and changes in other relevant policy areas
    including planning policy/guidance and skills/training.

The Coordinator will also: 

• Manage a detailed workplan in partnership with other organisations working on the Local
  Food Growth Plan
• Support fundraising activities to continue this programme beyond the first two years, and
  to raise investment for the sector and towards the identified actions in the Growth Plan and
  wider related programmes.
• Support and occasionally lead on engagement with Parliament and consultations on local food
  and related areas.
• Actively identify ways to support diverse groups through their work, in line with Sustain’s
  policy on improving diversity in the food movement, including supporting racial and
  socio-economic justice.
• Maintain excellent financial and other records, to help with accountability and open to
  public and funder scrutiny, working with Sustain’s finance and management team to report to the
  funder, project working parties and sub-groups, and the Sustain Council of Trustees.
• Contribute to the mutually supportive culture of Sustain, among the staff team, and project
  participants.

The post holder will also undertake any other responsibilities in connection with the work that
may arise from time to time, which may in the future include line management responsibilities. 

Personal specification 

Sustain is seeking a creative and experienced individual with strong team working and
partnership building skills, who shares our commitment to local and sustainable food, with the
following skills and experience.

Essential: 

• Background and experience in the food sector preferably with demonstrable experience and
  interest in local food systems and/or supply chains and commitment to sustainable food
• Experience of organising and running facilitated discussion groups to enable groups of
  people to find consensus, including recruiting participants
• Ability to analyse qualitative and quantitative research and produce compelling and concise
  conclusions
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills in fluent spoken and written English
  including writing reports, briefings, presentations
• Ability to work independently, with high levels of self-motivation
• Good project management, time management and organisational skills and the ability to work
  under pressure and to meet deadlines
• Energy, enthusiasm, creativity and tenacity
• Good experience of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in the formation of a shared
  vision, plan or programme
• Experience of working in partnership and running a governance structure for a
  multi-stakeholder programme
• A strong commitment to diversity and inclusion – particularly to making healthy and
  sustainable food accessible to all, and to tackling inequality, within the context of the role

Desirable: 

• Experience of working in, or with, the food retail sector
• Interest and/or experience in working on food supply chains
• Experience of writing a detailed vision or plan which would impact multiple stakeholders
• Experience of establishing metrics to track change and impact over time
• Experience of organising online or in person events
• Experience of creating compelling communications to inspire action and engagement
• Experience of working effectively to influence policy and/or campaigning for change

Diversity

The person appointed will contribute to the mutually supportive culture of Sustain (including
staff and project participants) in which equality and diversity are not just respected but
promoted. Visit our
website here for some useful advice if you are applying for a job at Sustain.

Sustain is recruiting for this role as part of our Ethnicity Confident and Disability Confident
schemes. Applicants who meet all the essential criteria, and who let us know voluntarily (via
our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form) that you would like to be considered in this way, will
have an enhanced chance of gaining a first-stage interview. 

Sustain welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, class,
socio-economic background, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or
belief. We are happy to discuss and consider flexible working at the point of hire. We
particularly encourage applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with
diverse identities related to gender and sexuality, and people with disabilities. This is
because these groups are currently underrepresented at Sustain. Where two or more candidates
are judged to be of equal merit, priority may be given to a candidate who belongs to a group
less represented at Sustain.

How to apply

For further information about this role, download the full
job description.

To apply for this position, please email [email protected] the following:

• CV (maximum two pages)
• Covering Letter telling us about your experience and how this relates to the personal
  specification (maximum two pages)
• In addition, please complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring form

As we are recruiting for several positions over this period, please put ‘Local Food
Retail Coordinator’ in the subject line of your covering email along with your name.

Deadline: 10am, Tuesday 23 January 2024

First-stage interviews for this position will take place (virtually) week commencing 29 January
2024, with second-stage interviews taking place in-person week commencing 5 February 2024 if
needed. Please indicate in your application if you are not available either of these weeks,
although we cannot guarantee we can accommodate requests for alternative timings.