Senior Manager of Food Pantry Operation Training & Compliance

General Description: The Senior Manager of Food Pantry Operation Training & Compliance is responsible for ensuring 450 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across Cook County are equipped with the education, training and resources needed to successfully operate in service and in solidarity with the community. As the Food Depository navigates an unprecedented demand for food (+50% ), community partners need education, training support, and technology to safely, efficiently and equitably receive, store, sort and distribute food. 

The Senior Manager is responsible for supporting pantry programs on all aspects of food distribution including compliance, food safety, client choice, customer service and food access capacity analysis across all partners.   

The Senior Manager leads a team of 4 responsible for establishing training capabilities, content, processes, and rapid delivery of new and updated training classes and material that meet target audience needs and consistently represent the mission and vision of the Food Depository. The Senior Manager is responsible for the management of course and content development, training delivery processes, the management of resources to deliver the content, and ongoing performance management to ensure training is efficient and effective. Training types include instructor led, online, blended, and documentation-driven.

The Senior Manager of Food Pantry Operation Training and Compliance will ensure training is consistent with outbound messaging and market and regulatory expectations for Food Depository partners and clients.

Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions

·        Develop tools to understand the capacity of food distribution partners and inform strategies to expand their ability to distribute both perishable and non-perishable items. 

·        Build an annual training calendar to offer comprehensive training on food handling, including food evaluation, sorting, safety, storage, distribution and best practices in client choice and accessibility.

·        Optimize and accelerate the adoption of Link2Feed as the client intake tool across the network of traditional partners (food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters) and innovative partnerships across schools, health partners, etc.

·        Create learning tools for new technologies that bring food equity to community partners and clients, including but not limited to an online compliance platform and online ordering.

·        Participate in evaluation and management of all partnership agreements governing food distribution including access to government programs (e.g. TEFAP, CFAP and other commodities); ensure partnership training language aligns with the FANO, USDA and Food Depository guidelines and protocols; ensure guidelines, communications and trainings are responsive to community equity analysis and client rights.

·        Plan, coordinate, and direct partner personnel training and staff development programs, conferring with GCFD leadership and Community Impact Team personnel to determine training needs.

·        Formulate training policies and schedules, utilizing knowledge of identified training needs, Food Depository processes, systems, or changes in products, procedures, or services.

·        Designate training procedures, utilizing knowledge of effectiveness of such methods as individual training, group instruction, lectures, on-the-job training, demonstrations, conferences, meetings, and workshops.

·        Organize and develop training manuals, reference library, testing and evaluation procedures, multimedia visual aids, and other educational materials.

·        Train assigned instructors in effective techniques for training on new partner orientation, specific on-the-job training, health and safety practices, refresher training, and electronic reporting system upgrades.

·        Develop dynamic new reporting and dashboards to analyze how the impact of education, training and investments support partners in expanding capacity. 

·        Analyze operating hours across the network, and develop recommendations on how new and existing partners can improve, incorporating community feedback.

·        Partner with operations to develop an agency-enabled operations program with the financial and technical training needed to fully empower community partners.

·        Collaborate with the community partnerships team to design food programs to meet the needs of new and emerging partners. 

Qualifications:

·        Undergraduate degree and/or relevant experience in food pantry operations with a minimum of 10 years of work experience and understanding of community level insights

·        Supervisory experience and the ability to lead and direct work of individuals and teams in collaborative, fast-paced environment.

·        Solid foundation in adult education principles and knowledge of instructor-led, self-directed web-based and blended learning methodologies

·        Demonstrated ability to analyze complex problems and implement solutions.

·        Ability to take directions, as well as deal with ambiguity and adapt to changing environment.

·        Ability to multi-task, prioritize and assess follow-up. Excellent project management and organizational capabilities.

·        Aptitude for building relationships across internal stakeholder groups

·        Strong written and verbal skills.

·        Proficient in MS Office suite – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

·        Valid Driver’s License and insurance.

Exposure

·        Normal office environment; some exposure to warehouse environment.

·        Evening and weekend hours required for community meetings and events, and participation in Food Depository events.

·        Interacts with GCFD staff, donors, vendors, member agencies, general public.

·        Extensive local travel.

To apply, please submit resume and cover letter and complete online application at: https://bit.ly/3aNKbIu