**INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY** Community Food Growing Officer

** INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY **

Organisation : London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO2 £44,184 - £47,262

Contract Type: Full-time/Permanent (part-time job share also considered, please note this in your application)

Working hours per week: 36

On-site working and frequent travel between sites is required for this position around 3-4 days per week. Hybrid / home working permitted for remaining time not required on site.

Application Deadline: 09/11/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference:   2401

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email [email protected] so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

Be part of something growing. We're looking for a passionate and proactive Community Food Growing Officer to help expand community food-growing opportunities across Waltham Forest.

This is a varied, outward-facing role for someone who enjoys building relationships, solving problems and turning ideas into action. Working across a variety of Council teams and with local organisations, you'll support community growers with advice and signposting to training opportunities, assess new sites for food growing, secure resources and funding, and help ensure projects are sustainable and inclusive. If you're motivated by community empowerment, nature, environmental action and creating lasting positive change, we'd love to hear from you.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

- Positively communicate with diverse stakeholders and promote inclusive access to local food growing opportunities
- Work closely with, and engage pro-actively with multiple community groups
- Support individuals and groups with food growing resources and signpost to training
- Assess site suitability for food growing in collaboration with internal Council departments
- Monitoring, and conducting site inspections to manage stakeholder license compliance

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

- Degree or equivalent or vocational qualification in relevant subject or area
- Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
- Experience of dealing with the public, desirable to have experience in outreach or engagement, or on behalf of community groups.
- Desirable to have Community Food or Allotments or similar horticultural experience.
- Demonstrate high level of customer service
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to build relationships
- An ability to respond to unpredictable volume of work, with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;
- This post is politically restricted therefore the post holder is disqualified from undertaking certain political activities under the Local Government Officers (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990.
- As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Ciara Hanson, Head of Climate and Nature Recovery [email protected]

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at [email protected] .

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us .

Fraud Awareness Notice:

The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).

We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.

If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.

If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to:
[email protected]

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice .