Future Food and Essentials Manager
5 days ago
Norwich
Purpose: The Future Food and Essentials Manager will lead Future Projects' work to help people and communities access affordable food and everyday essentials with dignity. A major part of the role will be taking forward our stewardship of the Nourishing Norfolk Distribution Hub and warehouse operation, developed by Norfolk Community Foundation and its partners to support community food hubs across Norfolk. The postholder will lead this work as Future Food: first securing a smooth transition and protecting the reliable, affordable service that hubs depend on, then strengthening and developing it in response to community need and our mission. Alongside Future Food, the postholder will provide strategic leadership across our wider food and essentials work, including community meals, pantry and community food provision, related charity retail and other practical support. They will help bring these strands together with our wider community support services, creating a more joined-up approach to helping people meet basic needs and access further support where needed. This is a practical and developmental leadership role. The postholder will lead and support staff, build trusted relationships with hubs, communities and partners, strengthen systems and ways of working, support fundraising and income generation, and turn ideas and opportunities into sustainable improvements. Context: Future Projects delivers services across food and essentials, community support, health and wellbeing, employment, education, learning and skills, and community connection through Future Support, Future Education and Future Radio. Our work is rooted in communities and reflects the reality that poverty and disadvantage rarely affect one part of someone's life in isolation. The Nourishing Norfolk Distribution Hub was developed by Norfolk Community Foundation to provide community food hubs across Norfolk with a reliable and affordable supply of food, household and personal-care products. Its model brings together purchasing, donated and surplus products, warehousing, logistics and partnership working. From September 2026, responsibility for the Distribution Hub and warehouse operation will transfer to Future Projects and become Future Food, while Norfolk Community Foundation retains the wider Nourishing Norfolk identity and strategic mission. Future Food will sit within Future Support alongside our existing community meals, pantry and wider food and essentials activity, bringing this work together around a clear purpose: helping people facing hardship meet their basic needs with dignity. Person Specification: You will be someone who sees practical delivery and trusted relationships as equally important, and who is passionate about strengthening communities and improving access to affordable food and essentials. You will enjoy bringing people together, creating clear ways of working and turning ideas into action. Organised without being bureaucratic, you will be comfortable moving between a warehouse, a community meal, a hub visit, a funding conversation and a planning meeting. You will listen well, build confidence and use evidence and judgement to make decisions. Curious, pragmatic and entrepreneurial, you will be willing to learn and comfortable working in a developing environment where not every answer or process is already established. You will be motivated by the opportunity to shape how Future Projects helps people meet their basic needs with dignity and how we support community food hubs across Norfolk. Essential criteria include: Experience leading or managing a service, project, programme or operational function, with responsibility for planning, delivery, review and improvement. Experience managing and supporting staff and/or volunteers, creating clarity around roles, priorities, processes and ways of working. Experience building and maintaining relationships with community organisations, partners and stakeholders across the voluntary, public or private sectors. Experience working with communities, community organisations or volunteer-led initiatives and using feedback and insight to shape services or activity. Experience managing budgets, resources, risks and competing priorities, with the ability to use financial and operational information to support decisions. Experience contributing to fundraising, income generation, sponsorship, business development or partnership development to support the sustainability of a service or programme. Ability to balance longer-term development with the practical requirements of day-to-day delivery, resolving problems while keeping sight of purpose and priorities. Ability to develop and maintain proportionate processes, systems and performance measures that support accountability without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Strong communication, influencing, relationship and stakeholder-management skills, with the confidence to talk about, represent and promote Future Food and Future Projects, communicate the work and its impact clearly, and work across organisational and sector boundaries with hubs, partners, funders, businesses and communities. A proactive, adaptable and solution-focused approach, with sound judgement, curiosity, the ability to work independently and collaboratively, and a clear commitment to Future Projects' mission. Ability to ensure compliance with relevant food safety and hygiene standards. Strong applications will evidence the following: Experience of food supply, procurement, logistics, warehousing, retail, wholesale or community food provision. Experience of community meals, pantries, social supermarkets, foodbanks or other activity helping people access food and essentials. Experience developing supplier, donor, corporate or funder relationships, including securing donated or in-kind support. Experience developing, mobilising or growing a community service, social enterprise, premises-based service or other purpose-led activity while protecting the quality of the existing offer. Experience of charity retail, community retail, volunteer-led provision or other income-generating community activity. About Future Projects: Future Projects is a charity founded in 2000 by two volunteers who had become increasingly frustrated by the social exclusion, poverty and lack of support available in their local community. They recognised that the issues people faced on their Norwich housing estate - one of the most deprived in the UK - could not be resolved by addressing one problem at a time in isolation. They worked with the local community to understand its needs and ambitions and developed projects in youth work, education, media and advice. Today, we help people in difficult situations build on their strengths and capabilities and develop the skills, confidence and resilience to take control and transform their lives. We do this through practical support and opportunities spanning food and essentials, community support, health and wellbeing, employment, education, learning and skills, and community connection, voice and belonging. Our current projects and services are organised in three distinct departments: Detailed duties and responsibilities: Key Deliverable 1) Secure and Sustain Future Food: protect the core service through transition and stabilisation, building the relationships, processes and confidence needed for a reliable, affordable and responsive long-term service. • lead Future Food through transfer and stabilisation, protecting continuity for hubs, suppliers and partners and making full use of the knowledge held by the existing operational team, • provide clear leadership for the Warehouse Supervisor and Finance and Procurement Coordinator, agreeing responsibilities, priorities, support and practical ways of working, • maintain proportionate oversight of ordering, procurement, stock, warehouse operations, fulfilment, invoicing, credit control, logistics, finance, risk and compliance, ensuring clear processes and accountability, • work closely with Norse Group, n-Able, suppliers and hubs to maintain effective day-to-day relationships, resolve issues early and keep contingency arrangements current, • use simple performance information, financial data, staff knowledge and hub feedback to identify problems and improvements, protecting the core service before introducing significant change Key Deliverable 2) Lead Food and Essentials Services: bring together Future Projects' wider food and essentials activity so that people can meet basic needs with dignity and services connect naturally with our wider community support offer. • provide strategic leadership across community meals, pantry and community food provision and other food and essentials activity, with oversight of related charity retail where it supports these aims, working with service and team leads and providing more direct operational leadership where appropriate, • work with the Support Services Manager and colleagues to develop a clear shared direction for food and essentials within Future Support, linked to Future Projects' mission, vision and wider community services, • help services develop consistent principles around dignity, choice, affordability, accessibility, community voice and practical support while retaining the flexibility to respond to different local needs, • support the effective operation and development of charity retail and other volunteer-led provision, including recruiting, inducting, training and supporting volunteers and ensuring clear day-to-day systems and responsibilities, • strengthen connections between food and essentials activity and wider support around money, housing, employment, wellbeing and other pressures, ensuring access to food is never made conditional on taking wider support, • identify gaps, duplication and opportunities across our food and essentials work and support teams to improve, join up or develop provision where this would create greater value for communities, • help colleagues capture learning, outcomes and stories from this work so that we understand what is changing for people and can use that insight to shape future services and support Key Deliverable 3) Build Network Relationships and Partnerships: make relationships a core strength of Future Food and our wider food and essentials work, creating trust, shared purpose and opportunities that improve what communities can offer. • build trusted relationships with community food hubs across Norfolk through regular communication, visits, listening and practical support, ensuring hubs have a genuine voice in the future of the network, • act as a visible ambassador for Future Food and Future Projects, confidently representing and promoting the work with community, voluntary, public-sector, food-system and business partners, • develop and actively manage relationships with suppliers, buying partners, donors, businesses, growers, retailers and community organisations, keeping key stakeholders informed and engaged while identifying opportunities to strengthen supply, affordability, expertise or wider support, • create proportionate ways for hubs and partners to influence product priorities, service improvement, shared learning and longer-term governance or advisory arrangements, • identify opportunities for collaboration across the network, helping hubs benefit from shared learning, purchasing power, resources, partnerships and connections while respecting their independence, • work with communications and wider Future Projects colleagues to identify and tell stories from Future Food and our wider food and essentials work, celebrate community activity, demonstrate impact and promote the service in ways that build public, partner and donor confidence Key Deliverable 4) Sustainability, Funding and Resources: strengthen the financial, supply and partnership foundations of Future Food and wider food and essentials activity so that valuable services can be sustained and developed responsibly. • maintain oversight of the Future Food budget, forecasts and financial performance, working with Finance and the operational team to understand costs, pricing, subsidy, margins and resource pressures, • work with Funding and Development and Finance colleagues to build a practical sustainability plan combining trading income, grants, fundraising, sponsorship, donations, in-kind support and partnership contributions, • develop appropriate earned-income and community retail opportunities that can contribute to the sustainability of Future Food, food and essentials provision and wider community support, ensuring commercial activity remains aligned with our charitable purpose, • contribute actively to funding applications, business cases and funder relationships, providing clear evidence of need, delivery, impact, costs and future opportunity, • develop compelling propositions for businesses, donors and corporate partners and build the relationships needed to secure products, funding, sponsorship, skills or other support, • work with the operational team and suppliers to improve purchasing value, supply resilience and donated or surplus product while keeping affordability for hubs and communities central to decisions, • review opportunities with commercial awareness and charitable discipline, ensuring income generation strengthens rather than distorts the purpose of the service, • monitor sustainability risks and opportunities and bring forward practical action early where costs, income, supply or delivery pressures could affect the core service Key Deliverable 5) Learning, Development and Responsible Growth: once the core is secure and sustainable, help shape the next stage of Future Food and Future Projects' wider food and essentials work through evidence, creativity and careful experimentation. • develop a staged plan that moves from securing and sustaining the existing offer to responsible growth, with clear priorities, measures, resources, risks and decision points, • use hub and community feedback, service data, staff insight, market information and external learning to identify where new products, services, partnerships or approaches could make the greatest difference, • test opportunities such as new product lines, household essentials, fresh or chilled provision, additional supply routes or wider network reach on a proportionate basis before committing significant resources, • explore where Future Food could support additional community organisations or collaborative activity across Norfolk, but only where this strengthens rather than weakens affordability, reliability and relationships with existing hubs, • explore opportunities for Future Projects to develop, host or directly deliver additional community food and essentials provision where this responds to need, strengthens existing services and can be delivered sustainably, • explore how premises, food and essentials activity and wider Future Support services could be brought together or developed in new ways where this would improve accessibility, impact, sustainability or community connection, • develop processes and ways of working as the service evolves, capturing learning and ensuring useful systems, responsibilities and governance keep pace with growth, • contribute to Future Support and wider organisational strategy, helping Future Projects develop a coherent and ambitious approach to food, essentials and household resilience alongside its broader work tackling poverty and disadvantage Other • undertake any other duties reasonably required and commensurate with the role, including providing flexible leadership or practical support during periods of transition, operational pressure, service development or significant change This Job Description is intended to provide a broad outline of the main duties and responsibilities only. It is not exhaustive and is subject to review in conjunction with the postholder and according to future changes or developments in Future Food, Future Support and the charity's services. Job environment: This is a varied role requiring regular work across community, office, retail and warehouse environments. The postholder will work with the Future Food operational team at Fifers Lane, colleagues across Future Support and central functions, and community food hubs and partners across Norfolk. The role will involve hub and service visits, partner, supplier and funder meetings, and travel across Norfolk. Some flexibility may be required around operational issues, service development, events or funding deadlines. Supervision: The postholder will be managed by and report to the Support Services Manager and will be subject to regular performance reviews and support sessions. Line Management Responsibility: The role will initially line manage the Warehouse Supervisor and Finance and Procurement Coordinator and may manage additional staff and volunteers across Future Food and related food, essentials or community provision as services develop and resources allow. The postholder will also provide strategic leadership across wider food and essentials activity, working alongside the managers and team leads who retain day-to-day responsibility for their own services and staff. Health and Safety/Safeguarding: The postholder must comply with policies and procedures relating to health and safety, food safety, warehouse operations, security, confidentiality, data protection and safeguarding adults and children. They will help ensure that appropriate operational processes, risk assessments and controls are maintained within Future Food, working alongside designated organisational leads and specialist partners rather than replacing specialist advice. Future Projects is committed to safeguarding children and at-risk adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share that commitment. Our primary concern is always the safety and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults. Future Projects will provide induction and training, including Health and Safety and Safeguarding, and will make external training available as required. All employees must complete training and refreshers as directed to ensure compliance with our procedures. Equalities: The postholder must actively support and promote equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. In this role, that includes ensuring food and essentials services are welcoming, accessible and responsive; recognising how poverty and food insecurity affect people and communities differently; listening to diverse community voices; and protecting choice and dignity in the way support is designed and delivered. Future Projects is an equal opportunities employer, a Living Wage employer and a Disability Confident employer; and offers a 4-day working week. More information is available on request. Pre-employment checks: Appointment is subject to satisfactory checks completed before start, including proof of identity and right to work in the UK, two references including the current or most recent manager, verification of stated qualifications or experience and any DBS check appropriate to the duties of the role. Employment gaps will be discussed at interview. A criminal record does not automatically bar appointment; decisions are made case by case in line with legislation. Applicant instructions: • Complete the application form in full. Explain any gaps in employment; incomplete applications may not be shortlisted., • Tailor your answers. Use the person specification and key deliverables to structure your application, using clear and outcome-focused examples where appropriate., • References. Provide two referees, one of whom must be your current or most recent line manager. We will not contact referees without your consent or before interview or outcome., • Reasonable adjustments. Tell us if you need adjustments for the application or interview; we are happy to help., • Submission. Follow the advert instructions for the deadline, submission route and file format. CVs are not accepted without a completed application form unless the advert states otherwise., • Data. We will handle your information in line with our recruitment privacy notice and data-protection requirements. JBRP1_UKTJ