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

This is a freelance role coordinating and delivering outdoor activities at Kirkstall Valley Farm and Swillington Organic Farm between August 2026 and September 2027. 

Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund the Friendly Farms project is linked to the CSA Network’s Your Farm Your Community (YFYC) work in Leeds. The Activity Coordinator will work closely with the YFYC projects Community Development Worker (CDW).

This role will suit a gregarious community worker with an interest in environmental issues, food, farming and health with excellent organisational skills.

Role information:

Total Hours: 43 days (Aug 2026 - Sept 2027)

Total Fee: £8600 (£200 per day)

Location: Home based and at Kirkstall Valley Farm and Swillington Organic Farm 

Supervised by: YFYC Community Development Worker

The role will be divided into 2 contracts as there will be a break during the winter:

2026 July - Sept: 15 days (average 5 days a month)

Induction and planning (with CDW) deliver 8 - 12 activities (4 - 6 at each farm) and contribute to evaluation and planning for 2027.

2027 March - Sept, 28 days (average 4 days a month)

Planning (with CDW), deliver 24 - 28 activities (14- 16 at each farm) and contribute to evaluation and final reporting.

This role requires a freelancer who is registered with HMRC and responsible for their own Tax and National Insurance, they must have professional insurance and a current DBS. They will need their own office, software and access to the internet. They will need to be available to work during the evening, weekends and school holidays.

Travel between their own base and the farms will be required (using their own car at £0.45 per mile or £0.18 per mile for bicycle). There is a separate budget for activity costs like materials and access which is managed by the project CDW.

 

More about the role:

During the project Friendly Farms will deliver 40+ activities (2 - 4 hours), between August 2026 and September 2027, involving 250 people, aiming for at least 20% to be new participants. Some activities may be repeated and replicated at both farms.

The activities will boost wellbeing through engagement with nature; preserve and restore habitats and wildlife and support the farms' sustainability, productivity and accessibility. They will encourage learning and sharing knowledge about local food resilience, growing and nature, with wellbeing and arts activities also bringing people together.

The postholder will work alongside the projects Community Development Worker and collaboratively with both farms, their volunteers/members and the local community. Activities will be co-produced, free, accessible, welcoming and some will be designed for families.

Tasks will include:

• Planning the programme with others (co-production is already underway, activity ideas have been generated and both farms have established volunteers).

• Collaboration with multiple colleagues, volunteers and participants.

• Promoting the programme of activities locally.

• Working with others to generate risk assessments and monitoring safety and safeguarding. 

• Liaison with any specialists and sessional staff who will be needed for some sessions.

• Practical tasks associated with preparation and tidy up.

• Welcoming people, leading some groups, helping with facilitating and supporting people to participate.

• Promoting inclusion and equity: helping to maximise accessibility and welcoming people from marginalised communities.

• Collecting data and feedback from participants using the projects’ tablet.

 

Person specification:

We are looking for someone with excellent skills and experience in:

Essential:

• Substantial experience of planning and delivering community activities.

• Experience and knowledge of delivering green outdoor activities.

• Great communication skills with a wide range of people.

• Experience of collaboration with multiple partners, colleagues, volunteers and participants.

• Good understanding of the barriers faced by marginalised communities and strategies to reduce the impacts in community activities.

• Lived experience of facing and overcoming barriers and the ability to use this understanding when supporting other people who may have different experiences of discrimination.

• Local knowledge of the communities in Leeds and around the farms.

• Experience of assessing and managing risk and safeguarding when planning and delivering community activities.

• Good ICT skills including emails, online meetings, some social media and use of a tablet (will be provided) to collect feedback.

• Working with other freelancers, supporting and supervising their delivery of an activity.

 

Desirable:

• Practical skills and experience of leading green creative activities.

• Knowledge and practical skills associated with nature based activities like preservation and restoration of habitats and wildlife.

• Knowledge and experience of developing circular economies in community settings.

• Ability to speak community languages.

• Understanding of community supported agriculture and agroecological farming.

• Experience of food growing/farming.

• Knowledge and experience of delivering training or teaching.

• Project development and management experience.

• Experience of monitoring and evaluating events and training courses.

We welcome applications from people living in the communities around the 2 farms Kirkstall Valley Farm and Swillington Organic Farm.  

Application information

Please send us a CV (no more than 2 A4 pages) and a supporting statement setting out why you would be the best person for the job, and your relevant skills, knowledge and experience (no more than 2 A4 pages) 

This should be sent to: Jude Woods 

Email: westyorks@communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk 

Closing date: 12 midnight on Monday 22nd June 2026

Shortlisted candidates will be informed by 5pm on June 26th.

Interviews will take place on Tuesday 30th June between 10 and 2pm, interviews will be 30 mins and online (Zoom).

We would like the successful candidate to start in early July.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs