Position Description:  Food Procurement Liaison (Procurement & Supply Chain)

Place in the Organization:

• Reports to Director of Food Procurement

Purpose:

To support Northern Illinois Food Bank’s strategic plan and its derivatives including the challenge to systematically to grow food resources. Primary responsibility is to support the Food Bank’s food acquisition programs, particularly donated food sourcing, donor cultivation, and supply chain economics to ensure that Food Bank activities and practices support the needs of its agencies in conjunction with operational objectives and food safety standards.

 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Under the direction of the Director of Food Procurement this person will:
  • Research and prospect for new donors and conduct visits with existing donors which drive collaborative process improvement across the Food Bank’s operations.
  • Lead special projects which target cross functional work streams focused on reducing and eliminating waste.
  • Create Donation Orders in the inventory management system as needed.
  • Coordinate and supervise any volunteers utilized by the department.
  • Collaborate across the Feeding America network of Food Banks in developing surplus inventory management strategy.
  • Visit food companies, distributors, processors and other food industry locations when necessary to ensure an acceptable quality, condition and shelf-life of offered product is being met.
  • Cross-reference weekly invoice documentation to create purchase orders.
  • Track data from staff Field Briefs and driver donation documentation.
  • Collaborate across teams to create and share food sourcing dashboard monthly.
    • Provide analytics that drive sourcing based on demand and inventory.
  • Support CRM platform(s) and procedures used by network agencies to report direct donation activity from food donor partners.
  • Provide exemplary and professional customer service that will attract not only new, but repetitive and reoccurring food donations.

Skills, Education and Experience

• Four-Year degree in business or a related area
• Must have food industry, food banking, or sales experience
• Excellent Interpersonal Skills/Relationship building
• Capable of maintaining multiple accounts and completing follow up correspondence on a regular basis.

Competencies

• Self-starter
• Strong customer service
• Verbal communications
• Prospecting and cultivation skills