Food Security and Community Resilience Insights and Impact Officer

About this role

If you would like to apply for this role, please email your C.V. plus a personal statement - clearly indicating how you meet the person and role specification outlined below to caitlin@warringtonva.org.uk by 31st October 2026.

*Job Title:*Food Security and Community Resilience Impact and Insights Officer

Responsible to: Poverty Action and Community Collaboration Lead

Hours: 20 hours per week, to be worked across 3-4 days

Contract duration: 3 years

*Based at:*Warrington Voluntary Action, the Gateway, 89 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SR and working across various community venues across Warrington

Role Overview

Working as part of Warrington Voluntary Action’s Capacity Building Team, the role of the Food Security and Community Resilience Insights and Impact Officer, is focused around strengthening community resilience and reducing poverty.

The post holder will be responsible for two main streams of work; Supporting the coordination and delivery of an established Community Food Network, with a focus on alleviating food insecurity and building resilience across communities; and the coordination, administration and monitoring of the Warrington Crisis Resilience Fund Micro Grants Programme.

Working with local Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations, this role will support the coordination and continual development of the Warrington Food Network, an alliance of VCFSE, and Statutory Partners who have been working together over a number of years to tackle food insecurity and support a borough where everyone has access to good, nutritious food.

The post holder will support community led food initiatives to build sustainable, community led provisions, develop warm referral pathways into wider resilience services, embedding a ‘no wrong door’ approach, catching people before they hit crisis. The role will work closely with Community Food Providers such as Foodbanks, Food Pantries and affordable food initiatives, Community meal providers, Community Fridges & Community Growers, providing insight, support and guidance to help organisations ensure residents have access to good food as well as connectivity into partner support services. You will gather data and insight from partners to feed into the wider agenda around tackling poverty and will be responsible for coordinating network meetings, maintaining up-to date directories of information around food security for the community and supporting the development of a thriving food system within the borough.

The Food Security and Community Resilience Impact and Insights Officer will also be responsible for the management and delivery of a Warrington Crisis Resilience Fund Micro Grants Programme, supporting community organisations to build high quality, impactful project proposals and providing administrative management to enable the grants programme to be as effective and impactful as possible for residents. The post holder will provide pre-application support to VCFSE organisations ensuring projects demonstrate clear links to building financial resilience and preventative support, as well as post application monitoring and evaluation support to develop and capture meaningful outcomes, KPIs and be able to evidence and communicate the difference they make.

Key Responsibilities

• Build positive relationships with community organisations, statutory services and partners to support a collaborative and connected Food Network
• Manage and coordinate Warrington Food Network meetings and events, facilitating effective information sharing between partners
• Share information, good practice, training opportunities across the Food Network, coordinating regular newsletters/ briefings
• Collect, analyse, and maintain data on food network activity and impact
• Manage and maintain the directories of information and materials to connect communities and professionals into information of available food support and associated resilience services
• Provide development and capacity support to Food Network VCFSE organisations and wider groups where required
• Keep up to date with local and national policy/ support routes related to poverty, hardship and the food system, sharing information and intelligence to promote new and existing support opportunities for the community
• End to End management and administration of the Crisis Resilience Fund Micro Grants Programme, including coordinating applications, managing and chairing grant panels, monitoring and impact and providing pre and post support to applicants
• Provide support to community organisations to develop impactful project proposals to strengthen community resilience in line with the grant criteria
• Work alongside funded organisations to develop practical monitoring and evaluation systems, ensuring monitoring processes proportionately reflect the size and capacity of organisations
• Help organisations identify meaningful outcomes, indicators, targets and demonstrate impact
• Analyse information across programmes to identify trends and emerging community needs
• Maintain accurate datasets and ensure compliance with GDPR

Person Specification

*Relevant Experience;*(Essential (E)/ Desirable (D))

• Experience of partnership, network or community development work — convening diverse stakeholders, building relationships and facilitating collaboration between external organisations (E)
• Experience of working with community organisations in a development or organisational capacity building context (E)
• Experience of planning, organising and running events and meetings(E)
• Experience of project administration including note taking, logistics and data management (E)
• Experience of supporting organisations to collect data, evaluate and measure impact (E)
• Experience in Grant Management or Funding applications/ processes (E)
• Experience of creative problem solving (D)
• Experience of coordinating and/or delivering projects in food and/or health within low-income communities (D)
• Experience working within an infrastructure organisation, charity or public sector partnership (D)

Skills, Knowledge and Aptitudes;

• Knowledge and understanding of the VCFSE sector and the issues affecting communities in relation to poverty, inequality and disadvantage (E)
• Understanding around food security, the local and national mechanisms that support communities and knowledge of a whole food system approach (E)
• Knowledge of outcomes, KPIs and theory of change (E)
• Confidence in using Microsoft Office suite, Canva and social media (E)
• Proven ability to manage a varied workload, prioritise effectively and meet deadlines across multiple concurrent projects (E)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills (E)
• Ability to work collaboratively and as part of a team (E)
• Self-motivated with a high level of initiative and the confidence to work independently without close day-to-day supervision (E)
• Ability to interpret data and tell compelling impact stories (E)
• Understanding of GDPR and data protection (E)

Attitudes and Values;

• A genuine passion for supporting communities, sustainable food systems and tackling poverty and disadvantage (E)
• Good working ethics, collaborative and supportive (D)
• Commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (E)

Qualifications;

Relevant qualification (e.g. Community Development) (D)

Additional information

• Travel expenses reimbursed
• Eligible to join company health cash plan after 6 months and completion of probation period
• Company pension scheme
• 25 days annual leave pro-rata, plus bank holidays (increasing yearly up to a maximum of 30 days pro-rata)

How to Apply

We actively encourage people from all backgrounds including people with disabilities or support needs, to apply for this opportunity as we really want applicants to reflect the diverse demographics of Warrington residents.