Food Vendor Relationship Manager

Suma operates the suma app (app.mysuma.org), an open-source e-commerce marketplace where 3700+ low-income people, people of color, adults with disability, and other vulnerable community members purchase and save money on essential expenses, access benefits, subsidies and discounts, and protect their data. The app responds to technical barriers (e.g., privacy, enrollment) that prevent our communities from accessing benefits they qualify for. The app has nearly 3,500 users and about 66.55% are SNAP/WIC beneficiaries.

FY26, users completed 38K+ app transactions and saved $247K+ on essential expenses, a steep increase from 6.5K transactions and $77K in savings in FY25. Our 10-person team has deep software engineering, product, accessibility, engagement, operations, communications, and customer service expertise.

Suma is seeking an experienced, Portland-based contractor to lead two connected work streams: (a.) building a replicable vendor onboarding process for the suma app, and (b.) serving as project lead for our 2026 Holiday Special, suma's annual holiday meal sales and distribution program.

Suma has been actively meeting with and introducing new vendors to the app, supported by a long-term consultant, EXP. This role will pick up and advance that work: developing a documented, repeatable onboarding process while directly leading vendor recruitment and coordination for the 2026 Holiday Special. Additionally this role will help us find a delivery partner for meals.

The contractor will pick up existing work from suma's long-term consultant (vendor lists, early concepts, and partial documentation) and build it into a complete, replicable process.

Responsibilities include:

• Design and document a repeatable vendor onboarding and informational process for prospective suma app vendors, building on existing materials and concepts.
• Identify, meet with, and vet approximately 2-3 new vendors (in addition to a separate delivery/distribution partner, scoped below).
• Vet vendors based on existing criteria, while also expanding and refining this criteria per the project and suma needs.
• Coordinate new vendor product/offerings for distribution on the suma app.
• Vendor categories in scope: local food vendors, gift card providers, and gift certificate providers.
• Produce onboarding materials (templates, checklists, outreach scripts, or similar) that suma can reuse and refine.

The contractor will serve as point of contact and project lead for the 2026 Holiday Special, suma's annual program that sells and distributes low-cost meals and gift cards to suma users. This year's program shifts away from a high volume oflarge prepped perishable items. Instead we’ll be focused on gift cards, gift certificates, and smaller, minimally perishable-dependent food items from local vendors, and a limited number of perishable meal deliveries.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead recruitment and onboarding of holiday meal vendors using the process developed in Workstream
  
  A.
• Source, evaluate, and coordinate with a delivery/distribution partner for the program
• Coordinate overall program logistics: vendor supply/fulfillment timing, distribution logistics, and delivery coordination.
• Act as the project lead, directing and coordinating the rest of the suma team through the process, and executing needs (ex:
  Brand & Marketing Manager for visual materials and marketing, Product Team for building offerings on app, etc.)
• Generate an outline/plan that will allow us to serve not only current suma users, but recruit additional users in partnership with low income housing partners.
• Manage timeline across the two distribution windows:
• Gift cards/gift certificates: distribution beginning mid-December
• Food items: distribution December 22-23
• Support planning against this year's target volumes: approximately ~300 gift cards/certificates, and no more than 100 food units (compared to 200 meals distributed last year).

Suma operates the suma app (app.mysuma.org), an open-source e-commerce marketplace where 3700+ low-income people, people of color, adults with disability, and other vulnerable community members purchase and save money on essential expenses, access benefits, subsidies and discounts, and protect their data. The app responds to technical barriers (e.g., privacy, enrollment) that prevent our communities from accessing benefits they qualify for. The app has nearly 3,500 users and about 66.55% are SNAP/WIC…