Gather - North Lancs food Hub - Coordinator
LESS
Lancaster
Posted: 14 Apr 2025
Deadline: 25 Apr 2025
Compensation: £28,523 per annum (pro-rata £11,409 for 15 hours per week for 12 months)
Paid Part-time Fixed term / contract
Job description
Gather (North Lancs Food Hub) Coordinator - Job description
- Job Title: Gather (North Lancs Food Hub) Coordinator
- Responsible to: LESS Directors, line managed by the Food Economy Projects Coordinator
- Salary: £28,523 per annum (pro-rata £11,409 for 15 hours per week for 12 months)
- Hours of work: 15 hours per week, worked flexibly to work across the week to meet job demands effectively. Hours on Thursday (approx 5) and Friday (approx 6) are needed, with the remaining hours (4) worked on Monday/Tuesday or flexibly during the week
- Start and end date: mid May 2025 (or as arranged) initially until 31 March 2026 (with the hope to continue if funding is secured)
- Purpose of the Role: To oversee the operations of the Gather food hub, consolidate systems and processes and further develop the Hub, expanding the producer network, sales and volunteers. The role calls for a highly organized individual who can balance hands-on order packing and safe food management with logistics and wider strategic engagement.
- Place of Work: Gather is currently hosted by Eggcup in central Lancaster. The role is based at the Food Hub (location could change) with office space or home-working available in the Storey Institute in Lancaster for Mon/Weds working.
About You:
You have demonstrable experience of working in food production, management, retail or distribution. You have a proven ability to manage efficient, accurate packing and administrative systems. You are highly proficient in using Google Drive/Google Sheets/customer sales systems for record-keeping, tracking sales, and managing orders. You are passionate about local food ecosystems and will be self-motivated to develop Gather.
This role requires excellent time management skills, as you will need to plan and distribute your hours effectively throughout the week to balance hands-on work with administrative/customer service responsibilities and the strategic development of Gather.
Key responsibilities
- Project coordination and strategy (in collaboration with the project group), bringing proposals for consideration to develop Gather and expand sales during this second pilot phase
- Review the supply base, bring on new suppliers where appropriate and regularly review all against the objectives, ethics and policy of Gather/LESS
- Budget and risk management, reporting both to monthly project meetings
- Reports to/for funders as required
- Coordinate the operations of the Food Hub, including:
- Take delivery of local produce and coordinate with local producers regarding weekly orders, any complaints and refunds
- Manage a weekly order cycle, currently on the Open Food Network platform
- Manage supplier information, including details, product lists, pricing
- Manage any requirements around organic or any other certifications to ensure produce is kept separate and correctly labelled
- Maintain all hygiene and labelling protocols and ensure food safety requirements are met
- Stock and supply management, working with wholesalers and local businesses
- Pack and fulfil orders accurately, working with a team of volunteers to coordinate this
- Distribute orders to a set of collection points and/or residential addresses within the local area, or coordinate this task with volunteers
- Work with and build a volunteer network to support the development and delivery of the Food Hub
- Propose and procure packaging options which are, where possible, reusable/compostable etc, and work with local producers to ensure that their products reach customers in excellent condition
- Maintain an up to date guide with instructions and protocols for ‘How to run Gather’
- Liaise with the Food Hub marketing and communications coordinator to expand sales and share the stories of the producers and Hub.
- Liaise with any public procurers, eg schools, to arrange a pilot using the food hub.
- Represent LESS CIC and Gather professionally and respectfully across all sites and stakeholders.
- Adapt to additional tasks as agreed with LESS Directors should project plans evolve.
The expectation is that there will be between 50-100 orders per week through the Hub during the second pilot period (summer 2025 - March 2026), with the potential for some small scale public procurement/catering/wholesale orders.
Person specification:
Essential criteria:
Food management, packing and order fulfilment:
- Experience in packing and distribution.
- Strong attention to detail to ensure order accuracy and quality control.
- Outstanding customer service experience in line with the values of the project.
- Food safety/hygiene and allergen awareness certificates and/or willingness to complete appropriate training
- A full, clean UK driving licence (able to drive electric van).
- Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends as required.
People and project coordination:
- Enthusiastic, proactive, and collaborative approach to teamwork and problem-solving.
- Experience running a food distribution model and/or working cooperatively with growers, food producers, local businesses and/or distributors.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to follow organisational policies and procedures and put systems in place where needed.
- Excellent organisational and time-management skills, with the ability to prioritise work and work independently.
- Experience working effectively with volunteers and trainees.
- Knowledge of and commitment to food sovereignty, agroecology, organic food production, and alternative food distribution models.
Technical skills:
- Highly proficient in using Google Workspace and Drive and Google Sheets for managing orders, tracking sales, and record-keeping, email, the internet, word processing, Zoom, and Excel.
- Experience using online ordering and customer administration systems.
This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a dynamic and growing project. If you are passionate about sustainable local food systems, efficient distribution, fair supply chains and community organised food, we encourage you to apply!
Application information
For more information and to apply please download the job pack below and email applications to ellen@lessuk.org by noon, 25 April, 2025. Interviews will take place on 2 May.
Gather – North Lancs Food Hub – coordinator, job pack
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About LESS
LESS in a Lancaster-based CIC, focusing on a sustainable local food economy. We coordinate the North Lancashire Food Futures network and The Plot, a new FarmStart scheme.
