Regional Environmental Council - Shrewsbury, MA - Food Hub Sales Manager (Full Time)

Job Title: Food Hub Sales Manager
Hours: 40+ hours/week, some nights and weekends required.
Start Date: ASAP
Compensation: Salary range, $30k to $40k, DOE plus performance based incentives. Benefits include health & dental insurance, 12 paid holidays, 3 personal days, and 2 weeks paid vacation. This position will be offered through December 31, 2017 with the expectation that it will be renewed in subsequent years, dependent on funding.
Supervision: Position reports to the Food Hub Coordinator
Location: Located at the Worcester County Food Bank facilities in Shrewsbury, MA
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis

DESCRIPTION
The Regional Environmental Council, Inc. (REC) is a grassroots, nonprofit, environmental and food justice organization with a 40+ year history of working for environmental sustainability and social justice in Worcester and Central Massachusetts through programs that include community & school gardens, farmers’ markets, youth development & employment, urban agriculture, environmental health advocacy and community organizing initiatives.

The REC is hiring a Sales Manager to manage day-to-day operations of the marketing, aggregation, and distribution activities of the Worcester Regional Food Hub. The Worcester Regional Food Hub (WRFH) is a collaborative effort between the Regional Environmental Council of Central Massachusetts (REC) and the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce made possible by the generous support of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts.

The Sales Manager will support the development, growth, and day-to-day operations of a program established in 2016 to create new markets for local farm products in Central Massachusetts at schools, hospitals, colleges, and healthy food access projects like mobile farmers’ markets, food banks and pantries, and healthy corner stores. Responsibilities include developing and managing systems and activities to maintain positive vendor and customer relationships, recruiting new farmers, food producers, and customers, and increasing sales to customers in accordance with annual revenue goals.

Detailed Responsibilities Include:
- Meet annual sales and growth goals;
- Identify prospects and secure participation of new farmers/local food producers and new accounts with institutional food service and healthy food access customers in accordance with annual goals;
- Provide excellent customer service, including answering calls and emails, taking accurate orders, problem solving, and responding to customer inquiries;
- Support farmers to produce quality products for the wholesale market;
- Maintain and deepen producer/vendor and customer relationships and manage communications;
- Help develop, implement, and evaluate marketing plan and promotional activities, including web content, social media, print media, etc.;
- Coordinate aggregation and distribution of local farm products to customers, including scheduling pickups and deliveries for all orders;
- Manage process for creating and sending product availability to buyers and managing orders;
- Generate weekly farmer “pick list” with type and quantity of each product ordered from each vendor;
- Support acquisition, roll-out, and maintenance of software to track availability, inventory, point-of-sale;
- Track sales and invoices for accounting, program evaluation and reporting purposes;
- Develop and manage systems to maintain quality standards throughout the supply chain and to meet health and safety protocols, including on-farm inspections, appropriate product handling and storage, cold-chain management, etc.;
- Travel as needed to meet with existing and prospective producers and customers;
- Participate in meetings and activities as required with food hub program team and REC staff;
- Other duties as assigned.

Job Skills:
The position requires the following skills and experience:
- Previous sales experience preferred
- Farming, Marketing, Food service, Warehouse, Buying, and/or Transportation/delivery
experience desirable
- Self-motivated, detail oriented, highly organized and reliable
- Ability to manage multiple tasks with competing deadlines
- Comfortable working alone and in teams both in-person and online
- Excellent customer service skills
- Comfort with online collaboration tools, e.g., shared calendars, email, shared folders/files (Dropbox,
Google Drive, Google Apps)
- Experience and comfort using online databases and web browsers
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- Experience using Microsoft Office programs (MSWord, Excel, etc.)
- Must be available to work a regular weekly schedule, 8 hours per day, 5 days each week, M-F; some
evening and weekend hours may be required
- Must have current driver’s license and clean driving record. Must have regular access to a vehicle.
- Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds

Send Resume with cover letter to: Brian Monteverd, Food Hub Coordinator, at the following email address: Brian@recworcester.org. Include subject line: “Food Hub Sales Mgr”.

The Regional Environmental Council, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer M/F and actively seeks a diverse pool of candidates. People of color are strongly encouraged to apply.

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