Public Policy Advocate

Job Description

Job Description

Job Title:        Organizing & Advocacy Team, Public Policy Advocate

Reports To:     Senior Public Policy Manager 

Application Guidelines:

• First review of applications will occur on August 17 . Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
• A cover letter is required for consideration.
• This position is currently hybrid.
• Out-of-state selected candidates will be required to relocate to the Oregon/SW Washington area before their date of hire and within 60 days of signing an offer letter. 
• We recognize that people gain skills and experience in many different ways. If you’re excited about this role and believe you could succeed in it, we encourage you to apply — even if you do not meet every qualification listed. We especially welcome applications from people with lived experience related to hunger, poverty, and systemic inequities.

Who We Are:

Oregon Food Bank (OFB) believes that no one should be hungry. Our mission is to eliminate hunger and its root causes.  We believe that food and health are basic human rights for all. We know that hunger is not just an individual experience; it is also a community-wide symptom of systemic barriers to employment, education, housing and health care such as systemic racism, sexism, and cissexism. That’s why we work systemically to achieve our mission to end hunger: we foster community connections to help people access nutritious food, and we build community power and strengthen networks of support and the safety net to eliminate the root causes of hunger for good.

We build community power to dismantle systems and policies that drive hunger and poverty.

Oregon Food Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we strongly encourage applications from candidates who can increase the diversity of our organization and strengthen our capacity to eliminate hunger. We believe strongly in the power of lived experience — and we actively seek individuals who have experienced hunger and its root causes to join our team. Our organization is stronger because of the leadership of people who have faced food insecurity in their own lives and/or hail from historically under-represented communities. Learn more about our commitment at  oregonfoodbank.org/equity.  

Who You Are:

You care deeply about community, about people experiencing hunger and hold them in the center of all that you do. You are committed to apply equity as a process and an outcome of your work to disrupt systemic social patterns that promote hunger such as racism, sexism, and cissexism.  You have a strong affinity with OFB’s 10 Year Vision and are profoundly excited to achieve this vision for and with our community.

Position Summary:

The Public Policy Advocate works to co-create, advocate for, and win proactive and high impact policy solutions rooted in the needs of our communities. The position ensures that OFB cultivates and sustains strategic relationships with elected officials primarily at the state level and is a lobbyist in the Oregon Legislature.  

Primary Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

• Together with our team of advocates and organizers, work collaboratively across OFB communities to develop and drive a high impact equity driven policy agenda supported by a vibrant and powerful community base. 

• Manage a portfolio of issues relating to ending hunger and its root causes and represent OFB as a lobbyist in the Oregon Legislature.  May organize grassroots campaigns to build public support for legislation or other OFB-supported causes.

• Develop and maintain effective relationships with legislators, policy advocates and community organizations pursuing an aligned OFB equity driven public policy agenda.  

• Ensure that OFB cultivates and sustains strategic relationships with elected officials at the state level and relevant state agencies. 

• Write policy analysis or other collateral to support engagement of multiple audiences.

• Act as spokesperson, when appropriate, to media or other audiences. Gains support from key stakeholders including members of the media or community leaders.

• Participate fully in OFB’s Advocacy, Volunteer and Organizing Team, share leadership across the team in peer to peer collaboration and team development.

• Participate fully in cross-department teams as assigned or as critical to position responsibilities.   

• Participate fully in OFB’s organizational planning processes. 

• Participate fully in data and technology systems by preparing reports that detail the status of bills or proposals, including lobbying activities and outcomes.  

• Organizational level responsibilities of exempt employees include:

  • To be an ambassador and a leader for OFB’s vision and mission, a cross-departmental collaborator, and an active contributor to building a movement to end hunger for good by addressing the root causes of hunger: systemic oppressions such as racism, xenophobia, sexism, and cisexism. 

  • In consultation and coordination with the supervisor, actively contribute to:

    • cross-departmental efforts

    • work culture activities and programming

    • advisory and consultative groups such as the compensation committee, affinity groups, Equity Ambassadors, Equity Think Tank meetings, among others

    • plan and engage in professional development activities that strengthen your capacity for your specific role as well as your capacity to contribute and advance organizational goals, OFB’s vision and mission.  

• Identify, share, engage in, and collaboratively adjust and make necessary changes to this description of duties according to the inevitable evolution of the role over time.

Skills and Experience Required: