Food Distribution Manager

Overview:

Job Title: Food Redistribution Manager

Salary: £30,000 - £32,000

Responsible to: Head of Food

Location: Birmingham but with a requirement to travel to farms and across the city meeting partners etc.

Contract Type: 1 Year Fixed Term Contract March 2026

Hours of Work: 36.5

The Active Wellbeing Society (TAWS) is a community benefit society and cooperative working with communities to identify, mitigate and remove barriers that prevent them from living active and connected lives.

Our vision is for a society where people have the autonomy, capacity, resources, and skills to become the architects of their own destiny; where our individual wellbeing is recognised as being bound up in our collective responsibility to and dependency on each other; and where all of us feel empowered as agents of social change to make a difference whether at an individual level or more widely.

In 2024, TAWS was given the opportunity pilot a Surplus Hub Project at Birmingham Wholesale Market, where edible waste food destined for anaerobic digestion can be diverted to human consumption. To purpose of this role is to maximise the amount of surplus food available to the Food Justice Network groups via the Birmingham Wholesale Markets.

Food Redistribution Manager:

You will be working within The Food Justice Network is a network of around 300 independent partner organisations, all of who are providing support across the city. FJN Partners offer a range of services from foodbanks, to community cafes, to community pantries and warm spaces, all delivering vital support to some of Birmingham's most vulnerable citizens.

Your role will be the sourcing and procuring farming surplus and collective buying of fresh produce for the Food Justice Network. Part of this opportunity will be facilitating the set-up of a city-wide network to make surplus food redistribution more coordinated and effective.

There is already a significant amount of surplus food redistributed across the city and lots of work going on in terms of reducing waste in businesses but we know that sometimes unexpected surplus food arises and not every food business is plugged in to the surplus food network.

Alongside the core of the role, you will also be managing two to three people who you will be working in conjunction with but on separate projects.

This will provide less reasons for businesses to waste food with a strong, well connected and promoted network.

Experience, Knowledge and Values:

What you'll bring with you:

1. Excellent partnership, networking and relationship management skills.
2. Commercial awareness of purchasing of food.
3. Good project management skills with demonstrable experience of managing all areas of project, and general resource management.
4. High level of organisational and administrative skills, good levels of entrepreneurial and practical thinking to solve real world problems.
5. Years of background in the food industry, ideally specialising in surplus food.
6. Experience of community work, stakeholder working, and partnership working at a local level.
7. Line management experience of a small team would be desirable.
8. Driving licence required

Requirements:

As part of your role, you will:

• Negotiate collective purchasing of fresh produce to reduce food waste.
• Build relationships with growers to redistribute food through the Food Justice Network and beyond, while identifying and improving local surplus food donation processes.
• Coordinate surplus food collection and collaborate with the Food Justice Network Engagement Officer for effective distribution.
• Partner with Xcess, a national surplus food network, to oversee haulage of surplus food into Birmingham.
• Support the development of a city-wide network to improve coordination collaboration and efficiency in surplus food redistribution.
• Work closely in partnership with and provide cover for the Surplus Food Lead at the Markets.
• Produce comms and improve relationships with potential local sources of surplus food in Birmingham.
• Lead, support, and develop a team of three, conducting regular 1:1s and performance reviews in line with company values.
• Manage workloads and resource planning to ensure team efficiency and delivery against departmental goals.
• Handle day-to-day people management issues, including absence, performance, and development.