Operations Director

Bedford Foodbank is an independent charity operating as a member of the Trussell Trust network of foodbanks. We employ 2 paid full time and 5 part time staff and are supported by 120 volunteers each week. The mission of Bedford Foodbank is to provide emergency food and support to individuals and families in crisis, ensuring that no one in the community goes hungry. The vision is to be a beacon of hope and support for those facing financial difficulties providing a minimum of 3 days of emergency food and support.

Role Purpose

The Operations Director role is responsible for the effective day-to-day management of the foodbank, ensuring sustainable service delivery while driving income generation and fundraising growth. You will oversee operations, fundraising strategy, partnerships, and compliance, ensuring the charity can meet increasing community need in a financially sustainable way with a passion for tackling poverty.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage all operational aspects of the foodbank, ensuring efficient, safe, and compassionate service delivery.
• Oversee logistics including food sourcing, storage, distribution, and volunteer deployment.
• Deliver a fundraising and grant writing strategy to ensure long-term financial sustainability
• Monitor operational performance and report regularly to the Trustees.
• Managing employees and volunteers to ensure they are supported, motivated, and aligned with the charity’s mission
• Build strong relationships with local authorities, faith groups, businesses, schools, and other charities.
• Represent the foodbank at events, networks, and public forums to raise profile and funds.
• Maintain compliance with all policies and procedures including Health and Safety and Safeguarding

Person Specification

• Demonstrable success in fundraising, income generation and grant writing.
• Passionate about tackling poverty with empathy for people from disadvantaged, marginalised or socially excluded backgrounds
• Understanding and sympathetic approach to clients, volunteers and referral agencies
• Running a small to medium size charity operation.
• Excellent relationship-building and communication skills.
• Commitment to the mission and values of a foodbank.

·         Willingness to support and promote the Christian values of Bedford Foodbank

Requirements:

·         Right to work in the UK

·         Clean UK driving license

·         Some evening and weekend work required

Use of AI in applications

We recognise that candidates may choose to use AI tools to support aspects of their application – such as grammar, formatting, or drafting. We understand that using AI tools in this way can help you express your strengths more clearly. However, your final submission must be a genuine, accurate reflection of your own skills, experience, and understanding of the role. 

To support integrity and transparency in our recruitment process, we ask that you include a brief note explaining where and how AI tools were used. Applications that appear overly generic, inconsistent with interview performance, or rely heavily on generative AI without clear attribution may raise concerns during the selection process.

Equal employment opportunity

We are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.