School Food System Innovation Grant Project Coordinator

Island Institute
Island Institute

Administration

Brunswick, ME, USA

USD 51,467-51,467 / year

Posted on Aug 2, 2026

What You’ll Do

The Project Coordinator will manage the implementation and compliance of the School Food System Innovation Grant (SFSI), part of Full Plates’ cooperative agreement with USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Healthy Meals Incentives School Food System Transformation Challenge (HMI). They will work with subrecipients, partner organizations, and Full Plates staff to implement check-ins and site visits, training and technical assistance, reporting requirements, evaluation activities, storytelling, sustainability planning, and other key components of the grant.

The Project Coordinator is a time-limited, grant funded position dependent on an existing federal cooperative agreement. This is a salaried non-exempt position, with a regular 32 hour work week of Monday through Thursday with an end date of January 31, 2029. This position reports to the Associate Program Director. The Project Coordinator has no direct reports, and is responsible for the following key tasks:

  • Sub-recipient management, monitoring, and support (50%)

    • Develop and maintain strong relationships with subrecipients and partner organizations

    • Serve as point person for subrecipients, responding to subrecipient inquiries in a timely manner

    • Conduct 1:1 subrecipient check-in calls at least once a quarter

    • Conduct annual in-person subrecipient site visits, partnering with Finance Manager

    • Take notes during meetings and events

    • Develop and update supporting documents

    • Manage any sub-recipient monitoring plans, project scope adjustments or budget changes, partnering with Finance Manager

    • Manage SFSI budget in partnership with the Associate Program Director & Finance Manager

    • Be the main point of contact with the USDA HMI team

      • Attend virtual check-in calls with USDA to report on grant progress and subrecipient activities

  • Identify and coordinate opportunities for the subrecipient cohort to gather, collaborate, and share learnings with each other and external audiences (10%)

    • Plan and facilitate virtual cohort meetings approximately once a quarter

    • Plan and facilitate annual in-person cohort meetings

    • Promote and attend relevant conferences

      • Lead or support conference sessions about subrecipient projects as applicable

  • Evaluation & Continuous Improvement (10%)

    • Manage contract with the Data Innovation Project and collaborate with them on key evaluation and continuous improvement tasks

      • Collect and monitor subrecipient project metrics

      • Offer additional support, learning groups, and workshops for subrecipients around data and evaluation

      • Support activities to tell the story and show the impact of the grant

    • Implement processes to ensure programs meet target objectives

    • Identify and recommend opportunities for program improvement based on feedback and needs of subrecipients and partners

    • Collect Full Plates metrics and track progress towards SFSI objectives

    • Share SFSI data and evaluation with Full Plates team to inform:

      • Internal Full Plates program evaluation

      • Full Plates policy and advocacy work

      • Full Plates program implementation work

      • Providing data, analysis, and subject area expertise to inform the field, partners, policy makers, and other stakeholders

      • Supporting Full Plates policy and advocacy efforts with subject area expertise, best practices and research and providing recommendations

  • Reporting (20%)

    • Collect quarterly subrecipient Progress Reports

    • Submit quarterly Progress Reports to USDA

    • Maintain and organize reports and documentation

  • Sustainability Planning and Storytelling (10%)

    • Work with the Communications Director to develop and share subrecipient success stories

    • Work with Program team, partners, and subrecipients to identify and develop opportunities for sustaining projects beyond the grant period

      • Connect subrecipients with potential partner organizations to support their projects and help scale, replicate, and/or sustain projects

      • Work with Full Plates’ Development team to connect subrecipients with potential funding opportunities


Flexible Additional Duties

As a small nonprofit, Full Plates may occasionally require employees to perform duties outside of their job description. However, any additional duties will be clearly communicated in writing and be limited and time bound. If an employee is picking up additional duties due to a leave on the team, additional compensation will be provided in accordance with policies outlined in the employee handbook.


Who You Are & Keys to Success

To be successful in this job, you will excel in the following areas:

  • Relationship-driven and people-centered: You are comfortable engaging with people and thrive on collaboration. You lead by listening and readily ask timely questions for clarity and guidance rather than relying on assumptions.

  • Curiosity and flexibility: You are naturally curious and enjoy learning new things and building new skills. You are comfortable in an at-times fast-paced environment where things can change quickly. You are a motivated self-starter seeking a systems approach to solutions.

  • Detail oriented: You are able to dive deeply into complex programs and systems, with the goal of becoming an expert and educating key partners and stakeholders.

  • Confident communicator: You are clear, creative, and confident in both your written and spoken communication. You can distill complex ideas into easily understood phrases and sentences, relaying urgency and driving action.

  • Commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice: You recognize that Full Plates is working to fundamentally fix an innately broken food system. You acknowledge the role of race, income, age, immigration status, and other identities in shaping food systems disparities, and you are committed to amplifying community voices to advocate for more equitable approaches. You recognize how your own identities show up in the work, and welcome, reflect on, and act on feedback with an eye toward continuous learning about race, ability, and other lines of difference.

The work environment and logistical expectations of the role include:

  • Core hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:00-4:00, with significant hours flexibility offered, contingent on meeting performance goals

  • Occasional evenings and weekends with comp time offered

  • Full Plates operates largely virtually and base location is flexible within the state of Maine. Our office is located in Brunswick and we expect to ask staff to come together in-person ~quarterly.

  • Travel may include events within Maine (with mileage reimbursement)

We offer the following employment benefits:

  • An annual salary of $51,467 (minus applicable taxes and withholdings)

  • Unlimited PTO, within a culture that actively encourages its use

  • Fully paid family and medical leave

  • Long term disability insurance

  • 17 paid holidays:

    • Independence Day

    • Labor Day

    • Indigenous People’s Day

    • Veterans Day

    • Thanksgiving break (2 days)

    • Winter Break (12/24-1/1)

    • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

    • Presidents’ Day

    • Patriots’ Day

    • Memorial Day

    • Juneteenth

  • Anthem PPO health insurance plan with 100% premium paid for employee and 80% premium paid for dependents and partners

  • Delta Dental plan with 85% premium paid for employee

  • SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with 2% non-elective employer deferral

  • $300 professional development stipend


Your employment with Full Plates Full Potential is conditioned upon adhering to the policies and procedures of the company and is “at-will,” meaning that either you or Full Plates Full Potential can end the employment relationship at any time and for any reason, by providing written notice to the other. Upon termination of your employment, Full Plates Full Potential shall have no further obligation to you except to pay you any accrued but unpaid compensation and other benefits to which you are entitled for services rendered up to the date of termination.


To Apply

Please use the job board portal to submit a single pdf document containing your resume and a cover letter introducing yourself. Application review will begin on September 1, 2026. As an organization, Full Plates does not use AI to create finished documents, and we expect all applicants to adhere to this policy.