Cook Up Co-Manager and Stirring the Pot Lead (Maternity Cover)

Purpose of role

Primarily, to lead on the development of Stirring the Pot, a social change initiative that has grown out of Cook Up, with a twofold objective:

• Promoting the idea of dignified kitchens as a human rights issue, thus influencing policy.
• Sharing our practical experiences of Cook Up to inspire and support others in community settings to offer local variations of the model, thus influencing practice.

Additionally, to work alongside the other co-manager to support the delivery of Cook Up. Cook Up offers a choice-based cooking opportunity for people without access to a kitchen, specifically people seeking asylum, experiencing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation.

What will this role involve?

The heart of this role is leading on the Stirring the Pot work. We have a toolkit, encompassing our key messages, that is ready to launch. The first task of this role will be to map out how best to launch it, and to build two networks: one of people working to influence policy around food justice, and another of those working on the ground in cooking and food justice. This part of the role will therefore require strategic planning, research, networking, an understanding of the relevant policy debates in this arena and a willingness to share our learning flexibly with others. This will make up the majority of the role and will be undertaken alongside the practical sessions.

The current Cook Up manager will be on maternity leave throughout 2027. The longstanding Cook Up development worker will be acting up as co-manager, so delivery will be in safe hands. The postholder will not be required to lead on delivery, but rather to assist with the sessions, to know enough about the mechanics to provide cover when their colleague is absent, and to be a supportive sounding board on all issues of service development. The sessions, held every Monday and every other Tuesday, are busy and can be emotionally demanding, but they are hugely rewarding.

We hope this role will appeal to someone who is excited by regular engagement and involvement with the Cook Up sessions, alongside the amazing opportunity to shape a pioneering new piece of advocacy work for QSA. This role would suit someone who is looking for a close-knit working environment, relishes a varied workload, understands the need to be flexible and is keen to work as part of a team with a reputation for delivering work of the highest standard.

By the end of the year, success would mean the toolkit has been launched, a community of practitioners is engaged and adopting some of the principles of Cook Up, and there is evidence of engagement with broader policy issues around food justice.

The recruitment process

By 9am on Monday 23 November, please send the following:

• Your CV, highlighting the areas of your experience relevant to this role.
• Your supporting statement, explaining why you want this role and how you match the experience, skills and values we are looking for.

We also invite you to complete our online equity and diversity monitoring form. You'll find the link in the attached job pack.

We will interview shortlisted candidates on Wednesday 9 December at our office in Euston. To reduce some of the stress of interviews, we will send you the interview questions in advance.

Our aim is to make a decision, and a job offer on the day. However, this may not be possible if we would like to speak to some candidates again.

Ideally, the successful candidate would start as soon as possible in the new year, depending on notice periods.

Being a diverse and inclusive organisation is especially important to us. We are particularly focused on three elements of this: lived experience of poverty; race and heritage; and disability. We actively encourage applications from candidates of diverse cultures, perspectives and lived experiences.

N.B. Please refer to the attached job pack for full details of this role.