Full Circle Food Fellow

Washington and Lee University•Lexington, VA

9d•Onsite

About The Position

This three-year fellowship position is funded through the Department of Environmental Quality’s Food Rescue and Composting Subaward application. The position reports to the director of sustainability and collaborates fully with University Dining & Catering, University Facilities and the Campus Kitchen food recovery program. The Full Circle Food Fellow (FCFF) will be instrumental in building protocols, practices, and training programs and resources that support a comprehensive, holistic, system for food waste reduction at Washington and Lee. Building on strong existing programs in waste minimization in dining operations, food recovery, and campus composting, the FCFF will collaborate with staff in each of these areas to facilitate best practices, track data, and analyze and report on results. Washington and Lee University actively promotes a dynamic and welcoming environment that allows students and employees of multiple backgrounds and perspectives to learn, work, and thrive together. Successful candidates will contribute to that environment and exhibit potential for excellence in their areas of expertise.

Requirements

Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills and ability to connect with a wide range of audiences, including both student and staff constituencies.
Candidates should be well versed in the social and environmental impacts of food waste and informed and passionate about waste reduction and landfill diversion.
Demonstrated ability in data collection, analysis, and reporting/visualization.
Exceptional organization skills.
B.A. plus minimum one-year relevant professional experience or relevant equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

Working with both industry best practices and direct input from internal departmental experts, develop training materials and programs for various staff and student constituencies on reducing food waste, optimizing food recovery capacity, and maximizing waste diversion from landfill to compost through best practices in procurement, meal planning and preparation, event planning, meal service, and communication.
Support development and implementation of consistent policies/practices for interdepartmental collaboration on food waste reduction efforts, including in both day-to-day operations and campus events.
Participate in operational rotations and real-time troubleshooting to inform development of standards and policy.
Assess and provide feedback on operations and events involving food service and disposal in support of continuous improvement.
Aggregate and analyze data from dining, recovery, and waste programs to capture a full picture of campus food use/loss and identify opportunities for improvement accordingly. Present findings and recommendations to key staff and the Full Circle Food Working Group.
Spearhead adoption and rollout of a campus Food Free Alert app.
Coordinate the Waste Minimization Team Leader program, a staff incentive/development initiative.
Prepare materials for quarterly grant reports to the VA DEQ.