Available jobs

Food Skills Coordinator (full-time)

The Stop began over 30 years ago as one of North America’s first food banks, and has grown into a vibrant community centre, using food as a gateway to addressing many issues, including poverty, the environment, social isolation, and health in one of Toronto’s lowest-income neighbourhoods. The Stop’s mission is to increase access to healthy food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds community and challenges inequality.

The Food Skills Coordinator will both run the Shovel and Spoon program and work with Stop staff in other cooking and gardening programs to develop and evaluate curriculum that supports the development of participants’ food skills and knowledge. Working in partnership with other local agencies, Shovel and Spoon is a cooking, gardening and nutrition program that builds healthy food skills, creates connections with nature and reduces social anxiety for people marginalized by a number of factors (particularly mental health issues). We are looking for someone who is passionate and creative about sharing their knowledge of cooking and growing good food and is skilled at facilitating diverse groups to help people make realistic changes in their lives.

Responsibilities:

  • Plan and create a program framework for the Shovel and Spoon program that is flexible enough to meet partner agency/participant needs while ensuring maximum reach and impact
  • Develop and facilitate hands-on cooking and gardening activities for Shovel & Spoon participant groups that will help develop increased self-confidence in the kitchen and garden and positive attitudes toward choosing, cooking and growing healthy food
  • Create a safe, welcoming and constructive environment for program participants
  • Recruit agency partners, negotiate partnership agreements and maintain good relationships with partner agencies
  • Work with other Stop cooking and gardening staff to centralize and document current program approaches
  • Take the lead on developing a suite of portable cooking and gardening modules / resource materials based on well-articulated learning objectives to support  The Stop’s cooking and gardening programs
  • Orient and supervise program volunteers and students
  • Develop and implement tracking tools and program evaluations

Qualifications:

  • Demonstrated ability to cook healthy, tasty and easy-to-prepare food  in quantity
  • Experience with organic gardening
  • Understanding of and experience with educational approaches that are effective in teaching  food skills,fostering  positive attitudes towards healthy and inspiring  people to change their food practices
  • Knowledge of food-related issues for people experiencing poverty, poor health and discrimination
  • Self-motivated and able to work constructively as a member of a team
  • Excellent interpersonal, facilitation and communication skills
  • Demonstrated ability to work within a diverse community (people of different ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds)
  • Experience with the broad range of tasks required by program coordination in a social services setting
  • Ability to speak a language relevant to the neighbourhood is an asset

Salary: $21.40 per hour plus benefits

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Start date: Immediately

Please submit your resumé by February 21, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. to: Hiring Committee – Food Skills Coordinator, The Stop Community Food Centre, 601 Christie St. Box 181, Toronto, ON M6G 4C7 or jobs@thestop.org. No faxes or phone calls please.

The Stop Community Food Centre is committed to employment equity and encourages applicants from equity seeking groups.  We regret that only those applicants being considered will be contacted.

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