Strategic Initiatives Manager

FLSA: Exempt/Overtime Ineligible

Benefits: Eligible

Hours Per Week: 40/Full-time

Met Council is America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to serving the needy. We fight poverty through comprehensive social services and by treating each client with compassion, integrity, and respect. Our programs are staffed by experts who help over 305,000 clients each year and advocate on behalf of all needy New Yorkers. Our services include 100% affordable housing at 21 locations, family violence program, Holocaust survivor assistance, geriatric social work, crisis intervention and the largest free kosher food distribution program in the world. Our network of 101 food pantries, affordable housing sites, and JCCs provide services directly in neighborhoods across New York City.

Position Summary:

In addition to delivering critical access to emergency food for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, Met Council is constantly pursuing new ways to elevate and enhance our service delivery and operations. Through our Food Programs Strategic Initiatives team, we have the opportunity to incubate and expand successful pilot projects that have the potential to benefit our entire network.

The Strategic Initiatives Manager will serve as a functional project leader, coordinating the work of our internal teams to oversee and guide new and existing innovative projects. By design this portfolio will evolve.

Initial projects may include:

• Overseeing Met Council’s homegrown food pantries, which serve as incubators where new organization-wide projects and initiatives can be tested. These pantries, based in Manhattan and Brooklyn, serve to promote our standard of excellence across the broader Met Council Food Pantry Network;
• Advancing Market by Met Council, Met Council’s new online ordering and pantry management tool;
• Providing coordination execution and alignment such as the Hubs at Hillel initiative, as well as serve as a thought and implementation partner on other innovations for the whole Met Council food team.

Principal Responsibilities:

• The Strategic Initiatives Manager will manage the pantry managers at Lindenbaum Pantry and the Manhattan Fulfillment Center, and work with associated staff to develop strategic alignment at each Met Council pantry site, ensuring cohesion and consistency.
• Help facilitate the relationship between our Volunteer Services team and Met Council’s Food Programs team on the use of the Manhattan Fulfillment Center for donor engagement events and special projects.
• Oversee the maintenance and growth of the student grocery assistance program in conjunction with CUNY and Hillel International.
• Scope, direct/manage, and evaluate pilots and specials projects between internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Work with department teams to design plans and track long and short-term projects, collaborate with the Director of Operations to outline internal processes, as needed.
• Identify and nurture partnerships with community groups, community-based organizations, and others to support Food Programs initiatives.
• Serve as a thought and implementation partner and leader of the strategic initiatives team as we seek to refine, align, and advance our overall goals of access and innovation.
• Additional responsibilities as required.