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.

Community Food Project Manager

Sussex Community Development Association (SCDA)
Newhaven, East Sussex

Posted: 17 Dec 2025

Deadline: 11 Jan 2026

Compensation: £30,131 - £32,615 pa pro rata (upper levels awarded for previous experience)

Disability Confident scheme

Paid Part-time Fixed term / contract

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Project Manager with a passion for helping people living in food insecurity to access food and support in a dignified way. The ideal candidate will be used to managing large teams of volunteers and have excellent fundraising skills, with the ability to organise and run a variety of events.

Seahaven Community Food runs two Community Supermarkets which offer emergency and affordable food to local people that for many different reasons, are struggling. Our Community Supermarkets offer wraparound care to help people coming to us in crisis to access support and advice. We also run a volunteer-led Community Kitchen that uses surplus ingredients to cook nutritious meals for those accessing the Community Supermarkets.

In this role you will be mainly responsible for:

• Recruiting and developing volunteers, including inductions, training and supervising the team
• Line managing a Project Coordinator and Logistics Coordinator to ensure projects are fully resourced each week and run on time and to budget
• Organising and coordinating fundraising and donation events, such as supermarket food drives, seasonal and social events, helping us to hit our fundraising target for the year

Ideally, you will have worked or volunteered in a community food or similar project and come with an understanding and ability to work with people from marginalised or socially excluded backgrounds. Organised and with good management and communication skills, you will be able to lead a team with confidence and adaptability.

A full clean driver’s license and confidence in safely lifting and handling crates of donated food and other items is an essential aspect of this role.

We are looking for people to join our team who have the qualities and skills we feel would most benefit our service users; professionalism, empathy, kindness and understanding. In return, we recognise people want to work in a supportive environment with friendly colleagues. We offer a flexible, hybrid approach to delivery wherever possible, annual leave of 23 days per year pro rata plus bank holidays and sick pay from the start (increasing with service), additional sick pay for necessary operations and recovery, a pension scheme, bereavement leave, and managers who are available to you… plus a day off for your birthday!

Application information

The vacancy closes at 5pm on Sunday 11th January 2026, with interviews conducted on Wednesday 21st January 2026 in Newhaven.

For the job description and to apply, please go to www.sussexcommunity.org.uk/work-with-us

Completed application forms can be sent to HR via email to hr@sussexcommunity.org.uk.

You may think that you’re not a 100% match to what we’re looking for, but we recognise that some skills and experience may be transferable rather than an exact match. If you’re unsure about whether to apply, please do contact the HR team on hr@sussexcommunity.org.uk and we would be happy to arrange an informal discussion with the recruiting manager.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs