School Food System Innovation Grant Project Coordinator

What You’ll Do

The Project Coordinator will manage the implementation and compliance of the School Food System Innovation Grant (SFSI), part of Full Plates’ cooperative agreement with USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Healthy Meals Incentives School Food System Transformation Challenge (HMI). They will work with subrecipients, partner organizations, and Full Plates staff to implement check-ins and site visits, training and technical assistance, reporting requirements, evaluation activities, storytelling, sustainability planning, and other key components of the grant.

The Project Coordinator is a time-limited, grant funded position dependent on an existing federal cooperative agreement. This is a salaried non-exempt position, with a regular 32 hour work week of Monday through Thursday with an end date of January 31, 2029. This position reports to the Associate Program Director. The Project Coordinator has no direct reports, and is responsible for the following key tasks:

• Sub-recipient management, monitoring, and support (50%)

  • Develop and maintain strong relationships with subrecipients and partner organizations

  • Serve as point person for subrecipients, responding to subrecipient inquiries in a timely manner

  • Conduct 1:1 subrecipient check-in calls at least once a quarter

  • Conduct annual in-person subrecipient site visits, partnering with Finance Manager

  • Take notes during meetings and events

  • Develop and update supporting documents

  • Manage any sub-recipient monitoring plans, project scope adjustments or budget changes, partnering with Finance Manager

  • Manage SFSI budget in partnership with the Associate Program Director & Finance Manager

  • Be the main point of contact with the USDA HMI team

    • Attend virtual check-in calls with USDA to report on grant progress and subrecipient activities

• Identify and coordinate opportunities for the subrecipient cohort to gather, collaborate, and share learnings with each other and external audiences (10%)

  • Plan and facilitate virtual cohort meetings approximately once a quarter

  • Plan and facilitate annual in-person cohort meetings

  • Promote and attend relevant conferences

    • Lead or support conference sessions about subrecipient projects as applicable

• Evaluation & Continuous Improvement (10%)

  • Manage contract with the Data Innovation Project and collaborate with them on key evaluation and continuous improvement tasks

    • Collect and monitor subrecipient project metrics

    • Offer additional support, learning groups, and workshops for subrecipients around data and evaluation

    • Support activities to tell the story and show the impact of the grant

  • Implement processes to ensure programs meet target objectives

  • Identify and recommend opportunities for program improvement based on feedback and needs of subrecipients and partners

  • Collect Full Plates metrics and track progress towards SFSI objectives

  • Share SFSI data and evaluation with Full Plates team to inform:

    • Internal Full Plates program evaluation

    • Full Plates policy and advocacy work

    • Full Plates program implementation work

    • Providing data, analysis, and subject area expertise to inform the field, partners, policy makers, and other stakeholders

    • Supporting Full Plates policy and advocacy efforts with subject area expertise, best practices and research and providing recommendations

• Reporting (20%)

  • Collect quarterly subrecipient Progress Reports

  • Submit quarterly Progress Reports to USDA

  • Maintain and organize reports and documentation

• Sustainability Planning and Storytelling (10%)

  • Work with the Communications Director to develop and share subrecipient success stories

  • Work with Program team, partners, and subrecipients to identify and develop opportunities for sustaining projects beyond the grant period

    • Connect subrecipients with potential partner organizations to support their projects and help scale, replicate, and/or sustain projects

    • Work with Full Plates’ Development team to connect subrecipients with potential funding opportunities

As a small nonprofit, Full Plates may occasionally require employees to perform duties outside of their job description. However, any additional duties will be clearly communicated in writing and be limited and time bound. If an…