FareShare, the UK’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste, is recruiting for a new Director of Food.

The charity has become something of a household name since its partnership with the footballer, Marcus Rashford, at the start of the pandemic, helped thrust its campaign to end holiday hunger firmly onto the national media and political agendas. A year on, and FareShare has successfully delivered two major multi-million-pound emergency government grants and is still redistributing the equivalent of 2 million meals every week, to vulnerable people across the UK.

Now, as the UK moves out of lockdown, Joanna Dyson, the charity’s Head of Food, who leads day-to-day operations to access thousands of tonnes of surplus food and get it to 11,000 charities across the UK, is stepping down and taking retirement. As the recruitment pack, designed to seek her replacement makes clear, it is not a role for somebody “seeking to ease themselves into a quieter life,” because whoever is appointed will be “responsible for supporting more people living in food poverty than anyone else in the UK.”

Lindsay Boswell, FareShare’s CEO, said: “FareShare’s relationship with the food industry is simply unrecognisable from when Jo joined us. She has driven our organisation forward in a transformational way and has been instrumental in leading our efforts to stop more food from going to waste across the industry. She will be a big loss to FareShare, and our network. But we know that Jo has some exciting new adventures for the next chapter in her life.”

According to government figures, 3.6m tonnes of food is wasted by the food industry each year, of which 2m tonnes is still edible, when it is throw away. FareShare has forged successful partnerships across the supply chain, to access and redistribute some of this food.

But as the national agenda starts to shift from emergency relief to the green recovery, and with the next UN Climate Change Conference taking place Glasgow later this year, FareShare is also looking to expand its pioneering Surplus with Purpose scheme. This sees it working with famers, growers and producers, to access the food rejected for being the wrong shape, size, or wasted through inefficiencies in production. Its next Director of Food will be leading efforts in this field.

So, what type of candidate is FareShare looking for? “Someone with in-depth knowledge of the food supply chain”, according to Lindsay Boswell. “That could be either from a retail or manufacturing perspective. But they’ll also need strong relationship skills and innovative thinking, a strategic brain and boundless energy. But above all, they’ll see this role as a chance to drive huge social change and tackle food waste.”

Think you have what it takes?

Apply here www.fareshare.org.uk/careers