About Us
The Center for Environmental Health (“CEH”) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that protects people from toxic chemicals and promotes business practices that are safe for public health and the environment. We stop corporations from exposing people to toxic chemicals, collaborate with responsible businesses and industry leaders, and commit to inclusive, community-led solutions that address environmental injustices facing the general public as well as low-income communities of color.
Workplace
CEH is an organization of committed science-driven advocates who work together to keep short-sighted business interests from harming people in the name of profit. We are proud of our work and achieve big wins for people’s health. The organizational culture is one of entrepreneurism and thoughtfully assessed risk taking. CEH believes that to protect the health of all people, we must address the disproportionate health effects of toxic chemicals caused by systemic racism and other social injustices. The movement to eliminate dangerous chemicals must move forward in partnership with environmental justice, reproductive justice, and other related movements working to address the pressing social justice issues of our day. CEH’s headquarters are in Oakland, California.
Commitment to JEDI
At CEH, striving for justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion (“JEDI”) for all is critical to its mission and values. We know that having a team that is diverse in race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, ability, sexual orientation, age, and background, and opinions — and fostering inclusion among that team — is core to achieving our organizational goals. CEH strives to recruit talent from a diverse pool of candidates and ensure that those professionals we hire are sufficiently supported so that they flourish. CEH wants everyone to not only have a seat at the table but to know that their presence and input make the organization stronger.
Equal Opportunity
CEH is an equal opportunity employer. In keeping with the priority we give to the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI), we are committed to gender and racial equity and actively seek to hire those from historically marginalized communities. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or veteran status. Learn more about the Center for Environmental Health at ceh.org.
The Position:
We are looking for a Manager to support CEH’s Food program, with a strong focus on our Institutional/Corporate Engagement work. The Manager is part of a team that supports large institutions to purchase healthier products including food service ware, which improves the quality of our food and reduces toxic exposures for those that come into contact with our food. By creating widespread demand for products without harmful chemicals, we are increasing access to safer products for all and advancing public health and environmental justice.
The ideal candidate is passionate about protecting people from toxic chemicals, has excellent oral and written communication skills, has excellent attention to detail and follow through abilities, is comfortable giving presentations and able to work independently as well as part of a team. We have a preference for the Program Manager to be located in the San Francisco Bay Area and eventually work in our Oakland office once CEH reopens unless a special provision has been made for a remote staff person.
The Manager of the Food Program will report to CEH’s Food Program Director, will work alongside the Food Program Coordinator and may help manage the work of our team of student assistants.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
Educate and Engage Organizations to Participate in Healthier Procurement
- Identify and reach out to leads at private and public procurement organizations to engage them in adopting CEH’s health protective criteria for our priority products as well as CEH’s GreenScreen Certification™ for Food Service Ware.
- Track purchaser outreach and actions taken using contact management software.
- Organize educational webinars/presentations on the human and environmental health concerns associated with products to inspire and motivate purchasers to adopt CEH’s criteria for environmentally preferable products.
- Draft or update education and communications tools. Examples include product reports and factsheets, toolkits, consumer guides, product databases, website content, blogs and action alerts.
Assist Organizations in Implementing Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Practices
- Maintain strong relationships with purchasers, provide guidance on how to implement EPP practices and assist purchasers to address common challenges at various steps of the process.
- Help promote CEH’s fee-for-service model for organizations with an ability to pay for our assistance while also supporting organizations that are unable to pay for services. Link corporate partners as appropriate to CEH’s revenue generating efforts.
- Assist with writing case studies and success stories, obtaining testimonials and quotes, and creating other recognition opportunities for our purchasing partners.
Establish Positive Relationships with Product Manufacturers
- Develop strong relationships with leading manufacturers to gain market information, identify trends, and convey information about the increasing purchaser demand for healthier products.
- Engage leading manufacturers, as needed, to help influence standards, eco-labels, legislation, or regulations in a way that protects public health.
Additional Duties
- Assist with maintaining and organizing the food program files and resources.
- Collaborate with CEH’s Policy Team or other programs in policy development and to recruit partners to champion strong public policies for environmental health.
- Collaborate with CEH’s allies and participate in relevant state and national NGO coalitions as well as with our partners in shared grants and projects.
- Use client contact management software to produce data for reports that demonstrates program activities and achievements.
- Partner with the development team to write grant proposals and reports to foundations and attend meetings with foundation representatives and donors as needed.
- Collaborate with CEH’s Communications Team to promote program and organizational activities and achievements.
- Conduct research on program related issues including on toxic chemicals in food and food-contact materials and responding to public inquiries, as needed.
- Assist with other projects such as product testing and database management
- Other duties as assigned.
Candidate Qualifications/Experience
The successful candidate will have the following qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience. Science background preferred but is not required.
- At least 3 years of relevant work experience. Experience working in a field dealing with corporate sustainability, healthy procurement practices, and/or environmental or public health is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated passion and commitment to environmental health and justice issues.
- Familiarity with issues related to toxic chemicals in consumer products preferred (or willingness to develop expertise and skills in this area).
- Proven ability to establish and maintain positive professional relationships with a wide range of people working in a variety of sectors, including government, academic, private businesses, manufacturers, designers, advocacy groups, etc.
- Demonstrated project management experience with strong organizational skills
- Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills, including the ability to educate and motivate others through public speaking and presentations.
- Positive and creative—willing to take risks and try innovative new ideas.
- Demonstrated capacity to work independently, thrive as part of a collaborative team, and manage multiple tasks and deadlines at the same time.
- Strong commitment to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, working in a multicultural workplace, and approaching cultural differences with humility, sensitivity, and appreciation.
- Proficiency in Excel, Word, and Outlook is required, familiarity with Salesforce or similar customer relationship management (CRM) software is a plus.
Disclaimer: This description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performance by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. Other additional duties may be assigned.
Working Conditions and Job Setting
Work is in a normal office setting. The Food Program Manager will be required to work in our Oakland Office once CEH reopens unless a special provision has been made for a remote staff person.
Salary
The base salary for this position is $70,000 per year.
Status: Exempt
Description last updated: 02/08/2023
Title: Food Program Manager
Applying for this job
Please submit the following materials in a single PDF:
- Cover letter, highlighting your qualifications
- Resume
Please merge these documents into a single PDF whose file name includes your surname and “Food Program Manager.” Then email it to: [email protected] with the subject line: Food Program Manager.
We acknowledge receipt of all employment applications, and when we decide a candidate is no longer in the running, we inform her/him/them promptly. (Note: this sometimes can take a while.)
Applications are open until March 6, 2023.