Are you passionate about transforming local food and farming systems and want to apply your skills to this work?
Public Engagement Coordinator
Organization: Just Food
Position Type: Full-Time, Permanent, 35 hours/week
Salary: $50,000 annually + MERCs
Start Date: January 2026
Location: Ottawa, ON at the Just Food Community Farm (JFCF), 2389 Pepin Ct, Ottawa, ON
Days of Work: 4 days/wk in person at JFCF, 1 day/wk online, plus opportunity to work fully online during Nov – Mar. Ability to work some Saturdays as part of the hours during April to Oct at the community farm identified as an asset.
Position Overview
Just Food is seeking an organized, detail-oriented Public Engagement Coordinator to support our programs and public-facing initiatives. This position is ideal for someone who excels in administrative coordination and communicating with the public, and who is interested in supporting community-level food systems work.
The role is primarily administrative and communications, with additional opportunities to assist in event planning, workshop coordination, and public engagement activities.
Key Responsibilities
Administrative Coordination
- Manage intake, tracking, and follow-up for multiple Just Food programs, including:
- Incoming applications for land access and funding requests
- Program/workshop/event participation
- Establish and maintain a team calendar, including application review timelines, promotional deadlines, intake deadlines, follow-up processes, reminders, and reporting components.
- Coordinate invoicing for programs and events; flag challenges to relevant staff.
- Coordinate and distribute evaluation surveys for all programs, summarize analysis of responses.
- Manage barn rental bookings at the JFCF.
Communications & Public Engagement
- Create and distribute e-newsletters and social media content.
- Respond to general public inquiries and participant questions with professionalism and accuracy.
- Update multiple websites related to program information, events, and barn rentals.
Event & Webinar Support
- Organize and support online and in-person events, including:
- Webinar series (promotion, registration, payments, processing honouraria)
- One-off events such as Fall Farm Fest, SeedLing Saturday, and New Farmer Training
- Coordinate logistics for event set-up, communications, and participant support.
Skills Needed
This position does not require knowing everything about food systems. While it will help to have some knowledge, this position is a coordinating, administrative position that requires a keen interest in learning about sustainable and equitable food systems, yet more so, the skills below are essential:
- 2+ years minimum relevant professional experience (can include program administration, communications, supporting program managers, etc).
- Knowledge/experience of working in a fast-paced, hybrid working environment (with experience working in not-for-profit environments an asset).
- Strong communication skills, with a comfort and confidence speaking with members of the public in person, by phone and by email.
- Strong awareness and ability to work with an equity lens, with ability to work with community members from diverse backgrounds.
- Strong administrative skills, including attention to detail.
- Experience or aptitude to do invoicing and track expenses.
- Strong experience with Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc), plus confident in ability to learn new digital tools and platforms.
- Experience with content creation for social media platforms (Instagram and Facebook), using Canva (or a similar platform).
- Experience sending newsletters and editing websites. (We use Mailchimp and WordPress).
- Good writing and editing skills for both promotions/marketing and reporting.
- Strong organizational skills, with ability to multi-task across multiple projects.
- Ability to balance taking initiative with strong team communication and collaboration skills.
- Ability to work independently and productively in a home and a farm office environment.
- Excellence in written and oral English, given the work environment is largely in English.
- Ability to converse/read in French and/or write/translate/review translations in French considered high priority assets.
- Ability to speak/write in other languages is considered an asset.
How to Apply
Please submit one document that includes both your resume and a brief cover letter outlining your interest and relevant experience to comms@justfood.ca with the subject line: Public Engagement Coordinator Application – [Your Name].
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled, starting from Fri Dec 5, 2025.
People who are from equity-seeking groups, often under-represented in leadership roles, are strongly encouraged to apply.
All candidates will be informed if you receive an interview or not.
