Vice President of Marketing and Communications

About FoodCorps:

Together with communities, FoodCorps serves to connect kids to healthy food in school.

Founded in 2010, FoodCorps has a holistic vision for transforming the role of food in schools, believing every school should be a healthy school and every child – regardless of race, place, or class – deserves to be well nourished and ready to learn. In historically marginalized communities in 18 states, their 250+ AmeriCorps leaders teach students about healthy food through hands-on lessons in classrooms and gardens, promote nutritious and delicious school meals in cafeterias, and collaborate with school and community stakeholders to foster a thriving school climate and a long-term culture of health.

Building on this foundation of direct impact, and leveraging the leadership trajectories of its AmeriCorps alumni, FoodCorps pursues an ambitious agenda for systems change. Through policy and advocacy efforts, FoodCorps champions state and federal reforms that strengthen healthy food education and access at scale. FoodCorps has also recently launched reWorking Lunch, a cross-sector initiative that brings together senior decision-makers across the school food system to take collective action that leverages the $18B our country spends on school meal programs annually towards better health outcomes for kids.

Across its work, FoodCorps pursues a future where healthier, more sustainable food is abundant and easily accessible for our nation’s kids at school, where school food is an engine for health, wealth, and equity in our communities, and where students receive daily opportunities to be nourished and cared for.

About the opportunity:

The incoming Vice President of Marketing and Communications is the strategic lead and steward of FoodCorps’ brand identity, raising the organization’s visibility and making FoodCorps a household name in the food, health, and education fields, and leveraging the tools of strategic communication to accelerate the organization’s impact, always applying an equity and social justice lens to this important work.

The VP joins FoodCorps during a period of ambitious organizational growth, rapid evolution, and change. As FoodCorps matures from a promising start-up to a field-leading social enterprise driving change at the system-level, the VP will curate FoodCorps’ narrative, leading FoodCorps’ approach to branding, public relations, messaging to key audiences like donors, policymakers, and prospective corps members, and field-based marketing and communication efforts such as FoodCorps’ brand presence in schools.

This is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned marketing and communications professional with a passion for equity to leverage FoodCorps’ meteoric rise and compelling results to create a powerful story that engages all of the organization’s current and future stakeholders. The VP reports to the CEO, leads a team of marketing and communications professionals, and  works closely with colleagues on the Executive Team to guide overall organizational growth and strategy.

How the VP will be measured:

• Executive leadership: Serve on the Executive Team as an essential communication strategist and storyteller for FoodCorps, and actively participate in strategic planning; routinely provide input on cross-department matters and CEO and Board decisions
• Team management: Lead, develop, and grow the Marketing & Communications Department
• Communication strategy: Develop and operationalize a comprehensive strategy and plan for how the Marketing & Communications team will best serve the needs of the organization
• Brand and voice: Drive dramatic growth of the recognition of the organization’s work and brand, making school food a trending topic in education and FoodCorps the clear field leader in the space, always applying an equity lens to how the organization presents itself
• PR and media: Partner with a contracted PR firm to develop a media relations strategy to secure coverage for FoodCorps in national and local press and new media, and position FoodCorps research for publication and dissemination
• Internal collaboration: Partner with teams across the organization to co-create, amplify, and elevate their messages and achieve goals, including fundraising, recruitment, school-based programming, policy advocacy, and strategic initiatives

Skills and experience:

• Mission alignment: A compelling personal connection to the FoodCorps mission and demonstrated interest in and familiarity with issues of education, food, equity, child welfare, and/or health
• Domain expertise in marketing and communications: A minimum of ten years leading a communications, marketing, branding, donor relations, and/or media relations function, and a strong preference for prior experience in a high-growth, nationally distributed setting and serving on a senior leadership team
• Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion: Understanding of the structural inequalities and the cycles of discrimination based on place, race, and class that both reinforce and are reinforced by the problem FoodCorps is trying to solve
• Management: A  demonstrated record of building and developing diverse, high performing teams
• Strategy:  Ability to drive strategic communication in the context of a high growth organization 
• Communication: Standout abilities as a written, verbal, and multimedia communicator, with a culturally sensitive approach tailored to diverse audiences, and experience creating top-quality collateral

Location:

New York City. Exceptional candidates in Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., or other locations may be considered.

Application, compensation, and benefits:

This search is being managed by Axis Talent Partners, a boutique executive search and talent strategy firm which partners with social justice-focused organizations. Interested candidates should submit a resume and cover letter detailing their interest in FoodCorps’ mission and qualifications for the position to:

 https://www.axistalentpartners.com/current-openings.

FoodCorps pays salaries that are competitive with nonprofits of our budget size and geographic location, and offers generous vacation and medical benefits, 401(k) matching, professional development funds and a sabbatical policy. Our salary range for this position begins at $150,000 and extends upward based on experience.

People of color, people with disabilities, veterans and LGBTQ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.  FoodCorps is committed to a diverse workplace, and to supporting our staff with ongoing career development opportunities. FoodCorps is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its employment decisions. FoodCorps provides reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees as required by law.

Applicants with disabilities may request reasonable accommodation at any point in the employment process.