Food Collection Assistant

About FareShare

FareShare now operates 21 Regional Centres around the UK. The majority of these are run by local charitable organisations we call our Delivery Partners. This enables us to be a UK-wide organisation yet also think and behave with local concerns at the heart of our actions. We support 9,653 local charities and groups – our Community Food Members. Over the past year 16,992 tonnes of food were redistributed by FareShare Regional Centres nationwide, feeding 772,000 people every week. We operate across 1,500 towns, cities and villages and we save UK charities and community groups more than £28 million each year. 

Hunger is a growing issue in the UK and while there is surplus food that is otherwise going to waste, we believe that this food should be used to feed people first. Demand far outstrips supply.

Main purpose of this role

This important role works closely with over 500 of FareShare’s food suppliers to ensure that surplus food is captured and distributed to our 24 warehouses. This key role is at the forefront of ensuring that surplus food reaches the FareShare warehouses, so that it can be distributed on to charities and community groups across the UK. The successful candidate will also work closely with our commercial team, to ensure our food partners receive excellent operational support and customer service.

This role sits within the Food Coordination team, which is responsible for managing offers of surplus food from our food partners. The team works daily to liaise with food partners, allocate food, organise transport and logistics, maintain food offer records, and work with transport companies to find the best routes to get food from A to B.

We are looking for organised, passionate people who are looking for a busy role with plenty of supply chain challenges. We are continually evolving our processes and working with new companies from across the food industry. If you’re a recent graduate, or really excited about working in the charity sector, please apply now.

Food allocation support and Industry liaison

• Provide excellent customer service and act as the first point of contact to food industry contacts via phone and email.
• Co-ordinate the allocation of stock offered from the food and drink industry and communicate this to Regional Centres.
• Maintain timely records of allocations.
• Co-ordinate food offers, acting as the first point of contact, gathering key information and passing to the Commercial Managers.
• In conjunction with Commercial Managers, identify key trends of incoming categories, and developments across the network and advise the Director of Food and team as necessary.
• Arrange and co-ordinate logistics for food across the FareShare network.
• Check invoices and pass approved invoices to the finance team.

Network engagement

• Provide excellent customer service to FareShare Regional Centres, via phone and email.
• Relay feedback from the network to the Food Team, Commercial Managers and the Director of Food.

Supplier engagement

• Proactively approach and engage with existing and new food partners, to prompt them to provide sources of food.
• Support with on boarding of new manufacturing sources, via letters and follow up calls.

Reporting and Database Management

• Gather and provide supporting information on food offers to members of the food team (eg level of food, acceptance rate).
• Use GLADYS to provide weekly reports on key statistics for FareShare’s food partners as requested by the Commercial Managers
• Use GLADYS to provide the Commercial Managers with quantitative data from the network as requested
• Alert the Commercial Manager to any apparent trends or anomalies relating to food offers or acceptance.
• Preparing ad hoc reports as requested
• In conjunction with Commercial Managers, keep the central database of Food providers and individual contacts up to date, ensuring new customers and prospects are included as appropriate.

Team and project support

• Support the Food Team members as required, including note-taking at team meetings
• Provide assistance and coordination of with Food team projects as required.
• Feedback to the team ideas for improving the existing processes and operations linked to the provision of food to the network.

Person Specification

You will need excellent communication skills over the phone and by email, be very organised and be able to prioritise working on several projects simultaneously. The aim is to support the food team its daily functions and key projects.

Skills, knowledge and abilities

Essential

• Strong communication skills (written and oral) and the ability to change tone for varied audience.

• Excellent telephone manner
• Good working knowledge of Excel.
• Familiarity with Outlook
• Ability to work within clearly defined and agreed parameters with limited supervision.
• An understanding of the importance of informing the right stakeholders at the right time.
• Planning and prioritisation skills
• Ability to analyse data, spotting trends in data and reports

Desirable

• Understanding of how FareShare operates and its objectives.
• Knowledge of databases.

Experience

Essential

• Working in a customer facing role.
• Proven track record of working systematically to agreed guidelines.
• Proven ability to form good working relationships, both internally and externally

Desirable

• Experience of working in administration within a logistics, supply chain or warehouse setting.

Competencies and Behaviours (Essential)

• An understanding of, and passion for, the mission and values of FareShare

• Able to demonstrate respect for work colleagues and FareShare beneficiaries 
• A positive and “can-do” attitude

Application process

If you would like to apply for this role please send a copy of your CV and a supporting statement showing how you meet the essential experience outlined in the person specification via our website. 

Closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday 7th May 2019 9:00am.