Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Job description

You will be responsible for supporting local community groups in Greater Manchester to plant orchards, maintain existing ones, provide training (eg tree pruning), engage volunteers and run community events. You will ensure that the projects are delivered on time, to budget and with consistent quality, and you will fulfil the requirements for monitoring, evaluation and administration.

You will work with the rest of our team based across the UK to share good practice, develop peer-to-peer support and become an engaged member of our friendly and passionate team of 17 people.

Scope of Job:

Orchard planting and restoration

• Liaise with community orchard groups to plan programme of workshops and events
• Organise and run orchard plantings, including all logistics
• Deliver training workshops in tree planting, pruning, maintenance and aftercare.
• Provide “orchard leader training” for key volunteers
• Organise community events (e.g. Apple Days, Wassails).
• Publicise events on social media
• Write orchard management plans
• Find potential new orchard sites and assess for suitability
• Engage members of the local community as volunteers

Project Management

• Ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget
• Manage project budgets
• Capture and record data for monitoring and evaluation
• Develop partnerships with others that support the work of The Orchard Project

Additional training

• Assess and mark homework on our accredited Level 2 Award in Forest Gardening and Level 3 Certificate in Community Orcharding.

Fundraising and consultancy

• Identify potential regional funding opportunities and partnerships that could develop our work in the region to share with our fundraiser and management team

Additional responsibilities:

• Take part in relevant training
• Attend and contribute to staff visioning away-days and UK wide team meetings
• Support colleagues across the UK through regional visits (1 or 2 days per year)
• Share best practice with partners and other staff
• Any other reasonable organisational tasks appropriate to the running of a small charity

Person Specification

Experience in:

• Managing projects of quality to deadline, to budget and with minimal supervision
• Delivering training in relevant subjects
• Working with volunteers
• Organising and managing events
• Developing and maintaining relationships with partners, community groups, local authorities and other stakeholders
• Monitoring, evaluating and reporting
• Profile raising using social media, web

Knowledge and Skills:

• A good level of horticultural or arboricultural knowledge and skills, particularly in relation to orchards
• A proven interest in environmental sustainability, sustainable food systems, and/or permaculture
• Excellent oral, written and presentation skills
• A high level of competence in Microsoft Word and Excel
• Cultural sensitivity in building relationships and engaging people from diverse backgrounds

Personal attributes:

• A passion for community orchards and a desire to share this with others
• A pro-active approach to sharing learning with other staff and partners
• An excellent advocate for the charity
• Passionate about the potential to transform communities and improve the lives of individuals through the project
• Preparedness to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in
• Flexible and innovative in your approach to delivering projects

Application information

The closing date for applications is midnight on Sunday 5th May 2024. We expect to be holding interviews on Wednesday 15th May (via Zoom), and ideally the role would start before the end of June.

To apply, please send the following to orchard@theorchardproject.org.uk:

1. Your full CV
2. Anonymised CV (see the guidance below*)
3. Anonymised covering letter of 2 sides maximum explaining why you want the role and how you meet the role description criteria
4. Completed Equality & Diversity Form (also on the Jobs section of our website)

We want our organisation to be as diverse as the communities it supports. Increasing diversity in the charity/environmental sector and within our organisation is very important to us, and we practice positive action during our recruitment process.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. Please contact us to let us know of any adjustments we can make to support you during the recruitment process.

If you have any questions about this role then you can contact stephanie@theorchardproject.org.uk, Head of Operations and Programmes, before the deadline.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

*Anonymised recruitment         

We are committed to attracting and employing the best candidate for the role. To ensure this, we operate anonymised recruitment prior to interview. 

The Equality & Diversity form will not be viewed by staff shortlisting candidates. Only details of your previous work experience, your qualifications and your written statements describing how you meet this role will be forwarded to those shortlisting for interview.

The anonymised CV should have any personal information removed. You should also check your covering letter to ensure it doesn’t contain any personal details, eg please don’t sign off with your name.

For the anonymised copy, you should remove:

• Your name
• Your address
• Your date of birth
• Dates that any qualifications were received
• Dates relating to any employment experience that was over 5 years ago
• Places where qualifications were received (i.e. your school or university)
• Your photograph
• Your email address
• Your telephone number
• Any information which may give an indication of your age, nationality and ethnicity, disability, sex or sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief.

You can anonymise your CV easily by adding XXX to information which you have removed.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs