Fairbite Food Club: Network Assistant

This is an exciting opportunity to help Cambridge City Foodbank (CCFb) realise it’s vision of ending the need for foodbanks by assisting the development and smooth running of our Fairbite Food Club network, in support of the Fairbite Development Manager. The Fairbite Food Clubs provide affordable food to those in need for a small membership fee, as well as a sense of community and wrap around support such as financial advice. We currently have a network of five Fairbite Food Clubs throughout the city.

Main Duties

● Liaise with Fairbite Food Club coordinators on a range of operational issues, such as stock needs.

● Order stock through a variety of routes, e.g. supermarket, fruit and vegetable suppliers, FareShare etc.

● Look into alternate supply chains, to ensure we are getting value for money.

● Assist with the day to day running of Fairbite Food Club Arbury, such as arranging the volunteer rota, training new volunteers, checking stock needs.

● Help with maintenance issues arising relating to the Fairbite Food Clubs, such as new equipment needs or arranging to get equipment fixed.

● Ensuring that Fairbite Food Clubs are compliant with food safety and health and safety regulations.

● Carry out various administrative tasks, such as issuing time credits to volunteers, inputting member or volunteer data, producing signage for shops

● Support the running of a Fairbite Food Club session, where needed, alongside volunteers.

● Other activities may be requested from time to time by the CEO, consistent with the job role and the needs of the Charity.

Personal Specification:

Technical skills and minimum knowledge:

● Strong administrative experience (including budget administration), highly organised, and able to effectively juggle multiple administrative tasks at the same time!

● Experience of community work and working with volunteers.

● Excellent written and verbal communication and relationship management skills.

● Competent in the use of Zoom/Teams and MS Office software.

● Able to work on own initiative and as part of a team.

● Able to do manual handling, including moving chairs and tables.

● Full clean driving licence, and use of car to travel between community locations.

Behaviours and competencies:

● Good community spirit and able to demonstrate empathy for the people we serve.

● Confident in communicating with people from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds in a friendly, non-judgemental manner, and to convey information and win support.

● Be committed to the vision, respect the ethos and uphold the values of Cambridge City Foodbank and Trussell.

Our Vision, Ethos & Values:

Our Vision is for a UK without the need for foodbanks. Each day we meet the need for emergency and affordable food, and tackle the causes of poverty, by harnessing the power of the community. We are an independent local charity and member of the Trussell Trust network.

We value dignity, justice, compassion, community and impact, in all that we do. We serve local people regardless of background, inspired by our Christian ethos and values.

As part of our commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity, we actively encourage applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions and those with a lived experience of poverty as well as any other under-represented group in our workforce. We are committed to ensuring the safety and protection of our employees from all forms of harm.

Currently: our amazing team of over 200 volunteers assisted by a small staff team, provided over 17,500 3-day emergency food parcels to people across Cambridge (around one-third are children) and distribute in excess of 170,000 Kilos of food.