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.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

OrganicLea Produce & Marketing Coordinator (3.5 days/week)

We are looking for someone to join our workers’ co-operative and support our work – based at our food growing hub at the Hawkwood Plant Nursery.

OrganicLea’s distribution work is growing rapidly but sustainably. Our own food production has increased significantly and we supply Waltham Forest households with over 750 fruit and veg boxes each week. As well as supplying our own produce, we help build markets and livelihoods for farmers and local growers, and link this work with our training and volunteering programmes, part of our mission to reimagine an equitable food system.

The Produce & Marketing Coordinator is responsible for putting together interesting, varied and delicious seasonal fruit and veg bags each week for our box scheme, coordinating the sales of produce from our Hawkwood growing site to a number of outlets, and sourcing produce from other growers. They communicate seasonal produce and horticutural news and updates as well as more general organisational activities with OrganicLea's audience and customers via newsletters and social media. We are looking for a range of skills including strong communication and problem solving skills, as well as the ability to self-manage.

We are particularly looking for someone who is passionate about seasonal, local produce, and wants to inspire the same enthusiasm in others.

More detailed tasks and responsibilities, and the skills and qualities we are seeking, are set out below.  

Experience of working with people is more important than formal education. If you do not meet all the skills and experience listed in the person specification, but feel you are the right person for this work, you are encouraged to apply. 

The detail:

• This is a 3.5 days per week role – fixed core days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and mornings on Monday and Thursday, with the remaining hours to be worked flexibly
• Salary: £29,047 per annum pro rata (based on a 35 hour week)
• Contract length: Permanent, subject to a 7-month probationary period for coop membership.
• Responsible to: OrganicLea Workers’ Cooperative, Distribution team
• Location: Tuesdays and Wednesdays to be worked at Hawkwood Community Plant Nursery; other hours may be worked remotely or at Hawkwood or at our office at the Hornbeam Centre in Walthamstow.

OrganicLea believe that, in most cases, it is best for the organisation and the worker to be fulfilling a 4 day per week role. Whilst this role is 3.5 days per week, we would like to support the successful candidate to find an additional half day of work within the OrganicLea cooperative.

Successful appointment to the role will be subject to satisfactory references and will require proof of eligibility to work in the UK, self-declaration of unspent convictions and an enhanced/basic Disclosure and Barring service (DBS) check.

OrganicLea is committed to equity and representation, and we particularly welcome applications from people who are from Black and Minoritised communities, have disabilities, are LGBTQIA+ or don’t have university degrees, so as to better reflect the communities in which we live and work. 

We are a Disability Confident Committed employer. We are happy to make appropriate reasonable adjustments during the interview stage and to our workplace if selected. Please use the application form to let us know if this is relevant to you (you do not need to share any details about your disability at this stage). If you meet the minimum requirements for the role we will offer a guaranteed interview.  

We seek to offer an open and supportive workplace which supports colleagues’ mental health and wellbeing. We are committed to ensuring that colleagues feel able to disclose any mental health conditions and to supporting them and offering reasonable adjustments when required.  

Job description: OrganicLea Produce & Marketing Coordinator

1. Produce coordination

• Order produce for the box scheme, using Excel and relationships with suppliers to ensure interesting, varied and delicious seasonal fruit and veg bags each week, while staying within a weekly budget.
• Using Excel and Word to update key working documents that contribute to the smooth running of the box scheme pack.
• Communicating with customers via weekly newsletter (Mailchimp) relevant produce information, updates and useful recipes.
• Working within the distribution team to ensure smooth running of box scheme, including ensuring all produce is of good quality, packaged and arrives to veg pack in good condition.
• Participating in the box scheme pack on a Wednesday morning.
• Responsible for deciding what products are included as part of the box scheme’s add-ons offering, monitoring stock and ordering additional products.
• Overseeing distribution of all produce we grow on site to our box scheme, farm stall and several restaurants and shops across east London.
• Maintaining and developing relationships with chefs, restaurants and cafés.
• Working with production team to crop plan effectively, and ensure all produce grown at Hawkwood site is harvested, packed and delivered to an appropriate standard.
• Support the harvesting of produce at the Hawkwood site through preparation of a harvest sheet in Excel and undertaking practical harvesting tasks.
• Maintain internal records of harvest yields.
• Regularly check and take appropriate actions from feedback from customers leaving the box scheme or from annual customer surveys.
• Working with production team to benchmark and set prices for produce in line with market prices.
• Update box scheme Welcome Pack when needed.
• Maintain a presence within the network of Better Food Traders, skill sharing and information sharing and taking part in their meetings and discussions, particularly those for produce buyers.
• Responsible for ensuring OrganicLea box scheme representation at local community events and for organising customer events.

2. Communications

• Maintain OrganicLea’s social media presence, keeping abreast of relevant local and national food and environmental issues and interacting with our network of fellow food traders.
• Use Wordpress to help maintain and update OrganicLea’s website with relevant news and events.
• Sending out newsletter to our general mailing list regarding OrganicLea events.
• Create engaging content that promotes our programmes and box scheme while raising awareness of food sovereignty issues and seasonality.
• Share updates about OrganicLea’s work at Hawkwood and in the wider community.
• Respond to messages and enquiries that come in via social media.

3. Co-op responsibilities

• Participate in work planning and management meetings with Distribution colleagues.
• Participate in General Meetings and working groups of the cooperative and support the processes of consensus decision-making within the cooperative.
• Monitor and mitigate financial, health and safety and other risks within the area of responsibility.
• Share responsibility for peer appraisal and support, facilitating meetings, minute-taking, and other organisation-wide tasks.
• Participate in the development of OrganicLea as a workers’ cooperative organisation, including contributing to the development of other related projects within the cooperative.
• Work together with other Co-op members and volunteers according to co-operative and permaculture principles and (for growing work) organic gardening principles.

Members are expected to abide by the Secondary Rules and policies of OrganicLea, work considerately and respectfully with all, and be willing to undergo training as deemed appropriate by the Co-op. Full members are normally appointed as Directors of OrganicLea. Whilst these are strong commitments, our cooperative structure also offers a strong sense of community, a beautiful work environment, shared lunchtimes, flexibility in work styles and hours, and the opportunity to do meaningful and rewarding work that helps people and the environment in very real and direct ways.  

Person specification

The successful candidate will have the following commitments, knowledge, skills and experience (E=essential, D=desirable):

Knowledge and experience:

• Experience of running and growing an enterprise, or practical involvement in a local community project (E)
• Experience of promoting and working with local food products (E)
• Knowledge of ways of working which promote participation and inclusion, and how this relates to different groups (E)
• Experience writing engaging copy and using social media tools to communicate effectively (E)
• Knowledge of local ‘marketing’ opportunities in the London Borough of Waltham Forest and surrounding Boroughs such as Redbridge and Enfield (or willingness to learn) (D)
• Practical experience of organic horticulture where trade is a component part (D)
• Experience of working with and supporting volunteers (D)
• Experience of record keeping using spreadsheets (D)
• Experience and commitment to working within co-operative structure or co-operative ideals (D)
• Experience (or understanding) of cooperatives / non-hierarchical organisations (D)

 

Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to prioritise and keep a calm head in a fast-paced environment, working to strict deadlines (E)
• Strong attention to detail (E)
• Think and work strategically, including beyond the day-to-day work area, with strong decision-making skills (E)

• High level of computer literacy including confidence with databases and spreadsheets (E)
• Grow an enterprise with a flair for logistics and creative troubleshooting (E)
• Work on own initiative and as part of a team, with a good understanding of consensus decision-making processes (E)
• Ability to manage personal work plans and support others' work (E)
• Make communications flow to those who need to know (E)

• Deal with complaints and challenges in a creative, friendly and professional manner (D)
• Willing and able to work for OrganicLea for 4 days per week (D)
• Strong financial skills (D)

OrganicLea CIC is a registered community interest company no. 5135926 

Growing site: Hawkwood Plant Nursery, 115 Hawkwood Crescent, Chingford E4 7UH 

Registered office: Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 9AH 

Web: www.organiclea.org.uk     Email: info@organiclea.org.uk     Telephone: 020 8524 4994

Application information

Please read the job description and person specification below carefully, and complete the application form which is provided here. We also ask that you complete an equal opportunities monitoring form online here.

For more information about the role or questions about the application process you can contact us by email on shanli@organiclea.org.uk.  

Please send completed applications to shanli@organiclea.org.uk

Deadline for applications is Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 9am

Interviews are to take place on Tuesday, 27 May 2025. 

Start date: As soon as possible after interviews.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs