Food Program Assistant Jobs in Lyons, IL (NOW HIRING)

Older adults are among those most impacted by hunger, yet 1 in 6 adults aged 50+ in Cook County face food insecurity. Hunger forces older adults into a decision of whether to secure food or other critical needs, such as medicine.

The Food Depository works intentionally through partnerships to break down barriers of nutrition access for specific populations. In addition to the 400+ programs that are open to the public, the Food Depository supports an additional 230 programs geared towards the older adult population. 130 of which support neighbors with the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) – a federal program with substantial compliance regulations. This program supports nearly 6,000 older adults in Cook County each month.

The CSFP Program Assistant (Temporary) will work primarily in the Food Depository office providing day-to-day administrative support to the CSFP program. Occasionally, support will be needed in the community providing administrative and technical support to partner sites. This position is essential to ensuring older adults throughout Cook County have access to staple grocery items.

The temporary position will be 35 – 40 hours a week through June 30, 2027.

Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions:

• Create and disseminate letters for participants being inactivated or waitlisted. Mail merge documents. Update statuses in our neighbor intake platform. Assist with this same process when a site is closing.
• Track requests for caseload adjustments with the overall caseload. Track monthly caseload and offer increases to sites with capacity. Monitor cancellations.
• Report on CSFP service data on a bi-monthly basis. Track responses and action items and provide updates to Partner Relations. Emphasize reporting deadlines.
• Assist partners with common intake platform challenges as needed. May include waitlist support, taking attendance, changing participant's status, adding a new participant.
• Support Partner Relations Managers (PRMs) with site visits providing refresher training to support compliance with reporting and distribution requirements.
• Administer the collection of the Annual Nutrition Survey during Spring 2027. Split surveys amongst those who will assist with data entry. Aggregate data at the end of the season.
• Work with PRMs to create a plan for CSFP sites to manage their own caseloads. This includes inactivating participants, notifying them of their status change, creating and using a waitlist, and creating a system for monitoring inactivity.
• Provide administrative support to PRMs with ongoing program evaluation work in accordance with federal program regulations.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Strong organizational skills with high level of proficiency in MS Office applications and the ability to quickly learn new software programs, required.
• High level of interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written), including ability to be clear, persuasive, and dynamic across individual and small group audience settings.
• Ability to work independently and proactively in a fluid environment, meet multiple concurrent deadlines, and organize time and priorities.
• Must have personal transportation with a valid license and insurance.
• Must be passionate about meeting the needs of older adults and underserved communities.
• Must be comfortable working with diverse populations in various Cook County neighborhoods.
• Experience in providing outreach and direct services, preferred.
• The ability to work well with internal departments, varying types of personnel, agency members, partners, donors, neighbors, and the general public.

Exposure:

• Normal office environment; normal program partner environment; and some exposure to warehouse environment.
• Hybrid work environment, with minimum three days per week in office
• Able to sit at a desk, walk, and stand for long periods of time.
• Some evening and weekend work may be required depending on program schedules
• Interacts with Food Depository staff, program partners, volunteers, funders and the general public.

Benefits:

As a part-time and/or seasonal position, this position will not be eligible to participate in the employee benefits programs that the Food Depository may establish and make available to full-time, permanent employees; provided, however, this position will be entitled to benefits required under applicable law, including under the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance.