Work With Us

Job Title

Croft Café Co-ordinator

 

Salary

The Real Living Wage (equivalent to £12.00/hour), initially for six months with possibility of renewal. Weekly hours by arrangement, but probably no less than 18 and no more than 36.

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Closing

1 p.m. Friday, 29 March 2024. Interviews in week commencing Monday, 8 April 2024.

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Location

The job will largely be in ‘Populus’, the newly refurbished and modified building on Leith Community Croft (our flagship ‘urban croft’, which we hope will be the first of many), which has a fully equipped kitchen and a dining area, but there may also be some work in our Hingabootery shed-based café, or at stalls or in gazebos/marquees during events (these also on Leith Community Croft).

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Background

The official purposes of Earth in Common (EiC), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC044220), can be summarised as to encourage and support the people and organisations of Leith to grow food vegetables, and flowers for pollinating insects, in urban spaces, in order to improve health and wellbeing, community cohesion and the environment. However, EiC brings together a diverse group of enthusiastic staff, freelancers, volunteers and members/supporters who are tackling an array of social and environmental issues at local, national and international levels, and so it has broader activities and interests than suggested by its current official purposes.

 

The charity was appointed by the City of Edinburgh Council to manage, with and for the local community, two acres at the northwest corner of Leith Links Park. Now known as Leith Community Croft (LCC), our pioneering and model ‘urban croft’ offers cross-cutting solutions to social and environmental problems through a suite of integrated projects. It accommodates a community growing project with >100 participants. The growing project is distinct from allotments and benefits agrobiodiversity (see https://tinyurl.com/croftabdiv).

 

LCC is also the site of our tree nursery, market garden, composting facilities, our Hingabootery (shed-based café, with a serving hatch), our Market on the Croft (to be re-launched in 2023), and our lovely new building (largely funded by the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund), with a well-equipped kitchen, flexible meeting/training/dining spaces and office space. This building constitutes a multipurpose community hub at the core of LCC.

 

To learn more about EiC, candidates are advised to familiarise themselves with the organisation’s history and current projects and campaigns by visiting its website (https://www.earth-in-common.org/). More information is also provided in the Job Description.

                            

Summary of the job

•    Appointees will work as a team with other Croft Café Co-ordinators, with a main focus on preparing and serving simple but high quality food and drink. They will also sell fruit and vegetables (many from our market garden on Leith Community Croft) from our farm shop area of the same building. Barista and/or kitchen experience would be preferable, but we can provide training to the right candidates. An understanding of food safety standards is essential as well as a proactive attitude, a sense of urgency and ability to pinpoint priorities and act on them.
•    The appointees will also perform all necessary ancillary work (food preparation, cleaning, stocktaking, till operation, ordering supplies, etc.). Opening hours are currently 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (subject to change during spring and summer), but there will be some meeting, preparation and cleaning time outside these hours, and possibly occasional catering at events. Candidates must be able to work weekends and early mornings.
•    As well as ensuring the smooth running of all aspects of Earth in Common’s café and farm shop operations, they will assist with other aspects of running Leith Community Croft, as required. This may include, for example, waste management, litter-picking and assisting with market garden work.
•    Croft Café Co-ordinators are expected to be flexible, use their initiative, and help each other as necessary, turning their hands to whatever needs to be done to further Earth in Common’s services and reputation. This includes contributing ideas to the development of café and farm shop operations to make them more biosphere- and customer-friendly and to improve profitability.
•    Croft Café Co-ordinators are important public-facing representatives of Leith Community Croft and Earth in Common, and are expected to abide by the charity’s Code of Conduct, offer efficient and friendly service, also engage with people who don’t necessarily use the café, and be able to inform members of the public about the charity’s history, values, long-term vision and ongoing projects and services and direct them to Earth in Common contact points and colleagues as appropriate.
•    While no guarantees can be given, it is hoped that the charity’s finances will allow contracts to be extended, assuming appointees have performed well.

 

Application notes

A detailed job description and person specification is available online. You can also request one by emailing admin@earth-in-common.org.

Please write a covering letter setting out how you meet the requirements of the position, and email, together with a CV and the details of two referees (preferably former/current employers, whom we shall approach with discretion), to evie@earth-in-common.org by 1 p.m. on Friday, 29 March 2024. Applicants selected for interview will be notified no later than Thursday, 4 April 2024, and sent a copy of the organisation’s Code of Conduct. Interviews will take place the following week, and successful candidates would ideally start in the last week of April or the first week of May 2024.