Title: Regional Farm to School Coordinators (part-time, average 25-30 hours per week)

Location: Hybrid. Remote work and field work visiting school districts and farms, plus weekly in-person meetings at Tolland County Extension Center in Vernon. In-person meetings will be rotated to other County Extension Centers as needed.

Commitment: 780 hours over 6 months (avg 25-30 hours/week); The position begins ideally in December 2024 and is for 6 months. Contracts will be renewed every 6 months based on performance. Funding is in place for this position until early spring 2027.

UConn Extension is seeking to hire SIX Regional Farm to School Coordinators to assist with outreach and technical assistance to school districts across the state. This work falls within UConn Extension's ongoing farm to school activities through its Put Local On Your Tray
Program.

Program Overview: UConn Extension has been engaged by CT State Department of Education to increase farm to school programs and activities in Connecticut school districts.

Geographic Regions - Each position will be dedicated to a geographic region of the state and will be responsible for up to 25-30 public school district assignments. Note, there may be school district assignments that fall outside the geographic region depending on need and balancing the workload for all six regional coordinators. Successful candidates will ideally be based in the region they are assigned. Over 2.5 years, the strategy is to foster productive relationships between each regional coordinator and their assigned districts.

Responsibilities:
• Support assigned school districts in completing a Connecticut Farm to School Assessment
• By spring 2025, provide 3 hours of technical assistance to each assigned school district focused on utilizing local food incentives from federal and state sources to purchase local and regionally grown food.
• Starting in fall 2025, provide more intensive technical assistance (up to 12 hours) to a sub-set of school districts that self-identify as ready to move forward with increasing and integrating farm to school activities in their district.
• Provide documentation on technical assistance delivery, including frequency, dates and times of technical assistance, and follow-up needed.
• Coordinate and host monthly check-in meetings with cohort of assigned districts. Create agendas, gather meeting minutes, maintain and submit meeting collateral to project director.
• Coordinate farm field trips for school food directors, staff, educators and administrators.
• Conducting pre- and post-evaluation of participants to demonstrate increased knowledge commitment and action toward increasing farm to school activities.
• Collaborating with other Regional Farm to School Coordinators to share best practices, learnings and support each other in the work.
• Coordinate with Project Director to engage and schedule external enrichment providers to deliver services and training events in assigned districts.
• Work with Project Director, communications staff, and external partners to strengthen the visibility of the project for stakeholders.

Supervision: The position will report to Jiff Martin, Project Director, who directs several outreach and education programs in the field of food systems. Other team members include Becca Toms (Communications Coordinator) and Shannon Raider Ginsburg (Agriculture Technical Assistance Coordinator). A Co-Director will be in place by early 2025.

Compensation - $27.00/hour. Timesheets are submitted every two weeks. This is a temporary, project-based position without benefits. Renewal of position is based on need and performance. Funding is currently in place until early spring 2027.

Required Qualifications:
▪ Demonstrates understanding of the opportunity to grow farm to school in Connecticut.
▪ Knowledge of state and federal policies that impact farm to school efforts, including state incentives and grant programs.
▪ Experience working in a school setting and interacting with students, teachers, administrators, and/or cafeteria personnel.
▪ Experience organizing events – including scheduling speakers, monitoring participant needs, managing registrations, conducting post-evaluation, and follow up.
▪ Past work demonstrates high degree of reliability and excellent organization skills
▪ Past work demonstrates ability to work independently and as part of team
▪ Demonstrates commitment to racial equity through continuous development and modeling inclusive behaviors and proactively managing one’s bias
▪ Demonstrates excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to listen, empathize, and collaborate in teams and work toward shared goals
▪ Comfortable and proficient with most digital platforms (Zoom, Slack, Webex, Microsoft Office Suite)
▪ Comfortable taking photos and video for communication needs
▪ Having own transportation means in order to travel across a region for in-person delivery of technical assistance.
▪ Willing and able to travel to UConn Extension office in Vernon and other county offices as needed.

Preferred:
▪ Bilingual Spanish a plus
▪ Bachelor's Degree in the field of nutrition, public health, education or related field
▪ Demonstrates understanding of K-12 education system and its challenges in Connecticut
▪ Experience with different types of school settings, such as large vs small districts
▪ Experience working in school cafeteria settings and/or classroom settings
▪ Familiarity with function and role of state agencies, including CT Department of Agriculture and CT State Department of Education
▪ Experience in small scale farming (this can be demonstrated by past apprenticeships or farm jobs, as well as growing up on a farm or coming from a farm family)
▪ Experience with program evaluation methodologies
▪ Competency with Qualtrics or other survey tools
▪ Competency with social media for purposes of a project, organization or initiative
▪ Training in photography and video production

To Apply:
Send a resume and cover letter to jiff.martin@uconn.edu by October 31st at 5:00 pm. Please specify in your letter which region(s) of the state you would be willing to serve (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Central). In the subject line of your email, please use: APPLICANT FOR REGIONAL FARM TO SCHOOL COORDINATOR

Our work is more innovative and responsive when our team represents a diversity of perspectives and life experiences. People of color, people with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ+, and members of traditionally underrepresented populations are strongly encouraged to apply. UConn provides reasonable accommodations to employees as required by law. Applicants with disabilities may request reasonable accommodation at any point in the employment process. UConn Extension is an equal opportunity employer