Applicants must complete and submit an electronic application for employment to be considered. Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of completing an electronic application.

Essential Job Duties:

The primary purpose of this Extension Associate position is to develop and lead programming for the NC Farm to Senior Services (F2SS) Project. This new project brings together a large team of statewide community-based food system experts including: NC 10% Campaign, Community Food Strategies, CultivateNC, NC Cooperative Extension Local Food Program, and the CEFS Career Ladder Initiative. The purpose of the project is to address food needs of senior populations in three counties of North Carolina by increasing healthy and fresh foods in county-based senior food services and to encourage new markets for small and mid-sized farmers and fisheries in North Carolina.

  • The project will develop local food pathways with three County F2SS Teams made up of county Local Food Extension Agents, county senior food services, local food hubs/aggregators, and local farmers. These three county models will inform toolkits with lessons learned that will be shared with senior food services in other counties in North Carolina and nationally
  • Lead Project Management Team meetings and milestones. Create and develop reports and communications materials that will be shared with partners.
  • Lead three County F2SS Team; facilitate meetings and honorariums
  • Lead and create goal-setting for three County F2SS Teams and develop understanding of farmer requirements for selling to county senior food services.
  • Facilitate networking and resource sharing among three County F2SS Teams.
  • Lead local food data collection at county senior food services.
  • Lead aggregation of F2SS resources for senior food services and initiate connections with national partners related to institutional food purchasing.
  • Coordinate F2SS Project outreach and communications and support toolkit development.
  • Assume increased responsibility in the coordination and logistics of peer-to-peer connections of Supply Chain Apprentices at food hubs/aggregators.
  • Coordinate Implementation of and analysis of farmer readiness surveys in three counties.
  • Develop project impact measures and evaluation.
  • Facilitate and support NC 10% Campaign goals of consumer outreach, interactive media education, producer/buyer networking, and local food data collection.

Minimum education and experience Master’s degree, or Bachelor’s degree with three years of relevant experience in the areas food systems or sustainable agriculture.

Job Location: Raleigh, NC

Work Schedule: 40 hours per week

Learn more about Farm to Senior Services.