General Description:
No child should grow up hungry in America, but one in six children struggles with hunger. We are working to ensure all children get the healthy food they need, every day – with a focus on school breakfast, summer meals, and afterschool meals.
The Children’s Nutrition Outreach Coordinator supports statewide and local efforts to eliminate child hunger in Cook County and throughout Illinois. The Coordinator is a key team member of the No Kid Hungry Illinois campaign, a coalition working to connect kids in need with nutritious food. The current phase of the campaign is heavily focused on building partnerships with statewide membership organizations, school districts, food service providers, and other community organizations focused on child health and nutrition. This position will work closely with the Senior Manager of Children’s Nutrition Advocacy and Outreach to develop and achieve key objectives.
Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions:
- Assist in the programmatic management of the No Kid Hungry Illinois campaign, focusing on the current phase of program implementation, which is working with school districts to motivate implementation of the Breakfast After the Bell program.
- Lead targeted outreach to school districts and individual school locations in high need communities and work with them to understand, implement and leverage federal nutrition programs, with a heavy emphasis on Breakfast After the Bell.
- Support the recruitment, ongoing engagement and the recognition of child nutrition champions.
- Support communications of grant opportunities with partners and coordination of the grant review and selection process.
- Support the planning and execution of statewide summits, peer to peer site visits and regional events, as needed.
- Present and exhibit at conferences.
- Support relationship management and implementation of other Greater Chicago Food Depository youth nutrition strategies that may include Summer Food Service Program, Child and Adult Food Program or other youth specific nutrition access programs.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- Outstanding relationship building skills and ability to maintain good rapport with diverse constituents, with the goal of moving toward a common vision or goal.
- Demonstrate working knowledge of state agencies, commissions, Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) policies relevant to connecting youth to federal nutrtion programs.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both verbal and written), including strong presentation skills and emotional intelligence.
- Bachelor’s degree with at least 2 years of experience in relationship management, project management, program implementation, and/or community organizing. (Master’s Degree or graduate level work in public policy, social work, public health, urban planning or a related field would be a plus.)
- Resourceful and self-motivated.
- Strong problem solving skills.
- Available to travel across Illinois, including approximately 3-4 overnight trips per year.
- Must have personal transportation with valid license and insurance.
- Proficiency in MS Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Exposure:
Normal office environment; some warehouse environment
Primary interactions with Greater Chicago Food Depository staff, school district leadership, professional organizations, food service providers, political and community leaders, and general public.
