Communications Manager

**Communications Manager**:
Type of Position: Full-Time, 18-month Maternity Leave Contract

37.5 hours per week

Competitive base salary of $100,000 annually

**Who We Are**:
The GVFB provides assistance to approximately 15,000 people monthly across Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore. We also provide food support to 150 agencies such as housing agencies, women and children’s shelters, transition homes and after school programs, which in turn provide hot meals and snacks to thousands of people each week, including people who are unhoused.

Our mission is providing healthy food to those in need. Our vision is to create healthy communities through fair and effective food systems. Currently, the GVFB distributes 8.9 M lbs of food each year.

**The GVFB is a proud winner of** **BC's Top Employers 2023**

**The GVFB is a certified Living Wage Employer**This recognizes the GVFB’s commitment to paying fair wages, upholding good work standards for our employees, and contributing to poverty reduction and a higher standard of living in our community.

**What We Offer**

We believe in providing employees with flexibility, and the resources and tools to excel in their role. Employees will work alongside people who are passionate about food insecurity and community. We provide an inclusive office environment with excellent Skytrain accessibility and free parking on-site.

Come and enjoy working in an inclusive, award-winning workplace

**Position Overview**:
The Communications Manager works closely with the Chief Executive Officer, the Development team, and other teams across the GVFB to create professional, innovative, inspiring and brand consistent internal and external communications, including website management. The Communications Manager efficiently leads the Communications department and the Community Engagement department. They oversee media relations, and coordinate appearances and press releases with the Chief Executive Officer.

The Communications Manager will also focus on planning and supporting all GVFB-hosted and third-party events, as well as media relations and necessary communications. An understanding of Vancouver’s food system, food banks and food security is an asset.

**Key Responsibilities**:
**Community Engagement**:

- Oversee all aspects of current and upcoming community events, including GVFB-hosted events, third-party events, school initiatives, and Virtual Food Drives. This involves event planning through to post-event follow-up and maintaining strong relationships with event hosts to foster long-term collaboration.
- Lead, develop and implement strategies that promote third-party community engagement, working with the Communications team to ensure consistent messaging across channels.
- Support in the recruitment, training and supervision of event volunteers and staff, including the Community Engagement Coordinator, Community Engagement Officer and Event Team Leads.
- Oversee event staffing requirements and ensure a high-level of coordination and support throughout each event.
- Manage event volunteers and staff, handle all event budgets, and hire and supervise Event staff, including Event Team Leads.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for third-party events and public-facing campaigns. Build and maintain strong relationships with community partners to drive support for GVFB’s mission and initiatives. This includes representing the GVFB at key events, cheque pickups and thank you’s, as required.

**Communications**:

- Lead the communications strategy to support the GVFB’s Strategic Plan.
- Work closely with executive leadership to ensure messaging consistency and alignment with organizational priorities.
- Attend bi-weekly management meetings.
- Maintain and enhance the organization’s community profile, media, and social media presence by building and strengthening partnerships and creating timely and professional communications across all channels with a consistent tone and voice.
- Manage and grow the organization’s online presence.
- Create, coordinate, and monitor digital content in the form of web content, copywriting, photos, blog posts, social media posts, and online discussions/conversations.
- Manage the GVFB brand presence across all platforms, from social media to our physical locations.
- Draft, approve and maintain communications collateral as needed to support the organization, our community events, campaigns, and ad hoc projects as necessary.
- Prepare and maintain communications collateral including media releases, fact sheets, Q&As and backgrounders as needed.
- Act as a liaison between the organization and the media, cultivating positive relationships with media outlets, facilitating and managing media interviews and requests, and supporting key spokespeople to ensure they are prepared.
- Lead and manage external supplier relationships as it relates to the communications function.
- Support, manage and coach the Communications team.
- Ensure comm