Manager, Emergency Food Programs

About Lighthouse

Lighthouse MI is a growing non-profit, established in 2019 when Lighthouse of Oakland County and South Oakland Shelter joined forces to offer a stronger collective response to poverty in our Metro Detroit community. With over 80 years of combined experience, Lighthouse serves as a beacon of hope to our neighbors who need it most by offering assistance with emergency basic needs alongside housing programs and supportive services designed to support long-term economic stability. Lighthouse owns and operates Spero Housing Group, a subsidiary non-profit dedicated specifically to developing and operating high-quality, affordable, and supportive housing for persons of low and moderate-income, as well as HandUp, a community and crowdfunding platform serving 100+ homeless service agencies and their clients across the United States.

Position Summary:

Lighthouse's Emergency Food Programs serve thousands of individuals annually throughout Oakland County. Working to alleviate poverty, Lighthouse provides access to emergency food through home delivery, multiple panty locations, and offsite distribution. The Food Programs Manager will lead these distribution food operations as well as the operations of our Food Warehouse. This role will be responsible for ensuring program policies and procedures, including data collection and record keeping, are implemented consistently across locations and distribution types. This position will assist in monitoring the progression toward program objectives and performance measures. The Manager is expected to play a significant leadership role in the overall emergency food programs and budget management, strategic planning implementation, partnership cultivation, continuous quality improvement, and supervision of program staff. The ideal candidate is a dynamic, thoughtful, and highly organized leader with experience in project management and emergency food systems.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Coordination and Management:

• Work with your direct supervisor to develop and carryout workplans in alignment with Lighthouse's strategic plan to achieve program goals and community impact.
• Develop scopes of work and manage procurement and performance of necessary consultants to complete project deliverables.
• Monitor and evaluate project progress, ensuring alignment with objectives and deadlines.
• Work with Director to expand nutrition education and services within pantry across sites.
• Work with development and program teams to carry out the Thanksgiving program.
• Work across departments and programs to ensure food programs services are integrated to other Lighthouse services to ensure all Lighthouse clients gain access to the resources they need.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Inform and monitor the systems to collect stakeholder feedback and regularly review feedback data from clients, stakeholders, and partners.
• Establish and foster strong relationships with key partners including food banks, other pantries, volunteer groups, distribution partners, and funding partners.
• Understand and support the needs of Lighthouse partner pantries,
• Facilitate regular communication and collaboration among partners.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for Food Program related inquiries and issues.
• Perform regular or as-needed visits to partner sites participating in Lighthouse's Emergency Food programs.

Resource Management:

• Assist with overseeing project budget and financial resources to help ensure efficient and effective use of funds.
• Maintain proper procurement of food and work to establish new food resources including donated food.
• Assist with identifying and pursuing additional funding opportunities to support project initiatives and sustainability.

Data Management and Reporting:

• Work with supervisor to establish outcomes, benchmarks, and evaluation plan for food pantry services across sites,
• Manage data collection and reporting access as it relates to different areas of the food program including Link2Feed and Lighthouse Direct.
• Work with staff and volunteers to ensure proper data entry into Link2Feed. Monitor data entry and quality.
• Pull, analyze, and report out on data related to project outcomes, performance metrics, and system improvements.
• Provide time-sensitive data reports and run regular reports to monitor data quality and conduct clean-up
• Use data to drive decision-making and inform continuous improvement efforts.

Advocacy:

• Stay informed about best practices, emerging trends, policy developments, and other key information impacting emergency food systems.
• Represent Lighthouse's Food Programs at local meetings, committees, and relevant conferences.
• Work to ensure program operations and activities are informed by the experiences and needs of those served and are inclusive and culturally competent.

Staff Supervision:

• Supervise direct reports on matters related to their respective areas of responsibility relevant to food program operations.
• Schedule staff to ensure adequate coverage.
• Conduct regular 1:1 supervision meetings, review and approve/deny timesheets and time off requests, and annual reviews with direct reports.
• Lead weekly food team meetings,

General Responsibilities:

• Serve as an active member of the Lighthouse team, including attending Lighthouse staff meetings, leadership meetings, and events and promoting inter-agency collaboration.
• Attend relevant internal and external meetings including relevant Committees and Task Forces of the Lighthouse Board,
• Implement and enforce agency and office policies and values to maintain a safe, client-centered, and inclusive environment for clients, volunteers, and staff.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from a 4-year accredited college or university in a related field or four years of relevant professional experience.
• 5+ years’ experience in a role directly or indirectly related to human/social services, and/or project management, and/or emergency food systems.
• 2+ years’ experience in program or project management.
• Knowledge and understanding of the key elements of the emergency food system
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite and Google Apps
• Strong organizational and communication skills
• Strong conflict resolution skills
• An appetite for innovation and creative problem-solving
• Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends
• Reliable transportation

Preferred Qualifications

• Lived or professional experience working with people experiencing homelessness or extreme poverty levels in the US.
• Master’s degree from a 4-year accredited college or university in a related field.
• 6+ years’ experience in a role directly or indirectly related to human/social services and/or project management.
• Knowledge of the social services landscape in Oakland County and surrounding areas
• Experience with Link2Feed
• Proven ability to work effectively with racially and ethnically diverse clients and teams
• Ability to build consensus and resolve conflict; willingness to have difficult conversations.
• Exceptional communication ability, both written and oral.
• Ability to listen and accept feedback constructively.
• Possess high emotional intelligence skills.
• Unwavering personal integrity.
• Ability to lead in a fast-paced, demanding, constantly changing environment

Excellent benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life, matching 401(k), and more.

This job description describes the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this position. It should not be construed as an exhaustive list of all required duties, responsibilities, and skills. Lighthouse is an equal opportunity employer, and does not discriminate against any qualified individual based on race, creed, religion, national origin, color, status as a veteran, gender or gender identity, sex, age, sexual preference or orientation, marital status, disability, income, weight, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume online via JobScore.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, until the position is filled.

No phone or e-mail inquiries, please.