School Feeding Manager – Turkana County at Mary’s Meals International

The school feeding managers will support the Country programme leadership in providing effective and inspirational leadership for Mary’s Meals Kenya team.

Helping in the general management and organisational development of Mary’s Meals Kenya in close collaboration with other senior members of staff.

The post holder will also collaborate with stakeholders at county, and community level in promoting Mary’s Meals vision, mission and values to ensure optimal programme implementation.

S/he will also support strategic planning and programme development.

The position holder will collaborate with external stakeholders at county level and sometimes at National level.

The principal duties will include, but will not be confined to, the following:

• Providing leadership to School Feeding Officers and other members of staff by ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures, organizational guidelines and policies in the implementation of the school feeding programme.
• Supervise, coach and mentor School Feeding Officers and others involved in the activities of MMK to ensure there is adequate capacity for the smooth implementation of the school feeding programme.
• Supporting the Country programme leadership in developing an annual strategy and programme for Mary’s Meals Kenya including developing and preparing proposals and budgets for approval by Mary’s Meals senior officers and Board prior to submission to potential donors.
• Collation of programme routine data of enrolment, feeding rate, attendance, stock balances and annual school performance from School feeding Officers entered into the Mary’s Meals database and Stock Tracker System for school feeding programme management and decision making including.
• Providing regular and ad hoc reports, programme information to the Programme Manager, partners, donors and other bodies/individuals as required.
• Ensuring that programme information required by the Programme Manager, Head office staff, other functional Managers and the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning team is given on time and responding to any problems, issues/ gaps in reporting.
• Ensuring that all the School Feeding Officers are managed in a proactive and supportive manner to encourage high standards and best practice in all aspects of programme delivery.
• In consultation with the Programme Manager and other functional managers assess and determine staff training and development needs and implement staff development plans which will include training in all key components of the programme.
• Helping School Feeding Officers in delivering trainings to schools and members of the community.
• Lead in the gathering and analysis of information for programme expansion decisions.
• Prepare new schools and communities for expansion of the school feeding programme.
• Working alongside other NGOs, government and international partners to share best practice and further the interests and reach of Mary’s Meals, engaging strategically with the Government of Kenya and other major stakeholders in school feeding programmes.
• Providing credibility and visibility to local community leaders and engaging in community capacity building and liaison with community leaders and volunteers to strengthen commitment to Mary’s Meals.
• Representing Mary’s Meals in various meetings with collaborating partners at community, county and national levels.
• Supporting visits from Mary’s Meals International staff and supporters.
• Undertaking performance reviews and objective setting with School Feeding Officers.
• Orienting School Feeding Officers on organisational policies and programme requirements, so as to achieve compliance.
• Supporting the communication and fundraising component of the programme by providing information to colleagues at HQ in Glasgow through the Programme Manager
• Any other duties commensurate with the role as assigned by the Programme Manager from time to time.

Minimum Requirements

• A Degree in the fields of Education, Development Studies, Nursing, Public Health, Human Nutrition, Agriculture, Community Development or any other relevant field with demonstrable significant experience in a similar role
• Well-developed skills in project/programme management.
• Advanced and well-developed interpersonal skills, with a solid track record in persuading and influencing others.
• Community engagement skills
• Strong leadership skills including the ability to be in control of delegated responsibilities.
• An excellent team player able to work with senior and junior members of staff.
• Fluent written and spoken English and Swahili.
• Ability to communicate well across all levels
• Able to work well with people of different cultures and nationalities.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills, particularly Word and Excel
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Ability to evaluate and analyse large amounts of diverse data.
• Excellent attention to detail.