Space Planner Consultant Volunteer

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Organizational Overview:

FFEN is a nimble, innovative and entrepreneurial nonprofit investing dollars and practical expertise into improving the financial and operational capacity of Minnesota food shelves. In the rapidly changing hunger relief environment, we offer pragmatic and free assistance to food shelves reinventing themselves to better serve more clients. We operate by building trust-based relationships with local food shelves and support them to incorporate increased business and service best practices in their work. We believe that a strong and stable food shelf system is critical to our communities and our vision is for the system to provide equitable, healthy & predictable food options throughout the state.

Your Purpose and Impact:

You will work alongside food shelf leadership to build more capacity in their space or process to serve their communities better. Many times, this looks like a food shelf space redesign! There are many reasons a food shelf will want to redesign their space; e.g. wanting to create a more welcoming environment for food shelf users, needing to allow for more families to be in their space at once, or switching their distribution model! This position would review the current food shelf space, and recommend new layout options. Due to COVID 19, food shelves have faced urgent pressure to create safe and efficient processes to get food to their community members. Many food shelves partner with FFEN on space redesign to think through the efficient movement of people through their space or designing a space with the capacity to provide fresh food to their community. This is a dynamic role where no two food shelf projects are the same.

When matched to a food shelf you will be responsible for:

• Review Current Layout: Volunteers can visit food shelf location during service hours to see the current design in action. Meet with the food shelf contact to hear about current challenges in the space, and their hopes for the new layout.

• Recommend New Layout Options: Create and document new option(s) for the food shelf contact to review in collaboration with FFEN Staff and volunteers.
• Client Centered Approach: Collaborate with food shelf leadership and identify other recommendations in relation to client needs

What you will need to find success in this volunteer role:

• Experience in space planning, layout design, architecture, or interior design
• Ability to document new layout option(s) through online tools, software, or sketches
• Has access to a computer for consistent communication and documentation
• Organized and task-driven
  

Your opportunity for growth includes:

• Participating in a unique organization supporting the work and sustainability of MN food shelves.
• Gaining knowledge of the broader hunger relief sector and system and the organizations addressing the issue of hunger and food insecurity.
• Expanding and building your layout design experience.
• Experience food flow and a client centered approach while having a localized impact.

Time Commitment:

• 10-20 hours per food shelf design; includes consultation calls and meetings with clients
• We match projects to volunteers after vetting food shelf location and time availability to fit each volunteer’s needs.
• Some daytime availability required to meet with food shelf partners
• Flexible and remote, with the ability to control meeting times and deadlines

To apply for this position, forward your resume and cover letter to : volunteer@ffen.org