Bilingual Program Associate

Join our friendly, collaborative, and hardworking programs team at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, reporting to the Program Manager. As part of the Participant Enrollment and Customer Service branch, the Bilingual Program Associate is responsible for participant enrollment and referral to the Food Bank’s services, as well as providing excellent customer service and support to participants actively enrolled in services.

About the Organization

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s mission is to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin counties. We envision a community free of the root causes of hunger, where everyone has access to nutritious food of their choosing and is uplifted by a network of support. Together with more than 250+ community partners, we work to address hunger head-on through a coordinated network of neighborhood food pantries, CalFresh enrollment, home-delivered groceries, and policy and advocacy efforts. This fiscal year, we are serving 42,000 households per week, with nearly 70% of our distribution being fresh fruits and vegetables. Learn more about us.

Core Values

• Collaboration and Teamwork: Partners with others to contribute ideas, time, or energy to ensure a project or task’s success. Seeks assistance as needed and consistently volunteers assistance to colleagues. Acknowledges colleagues' accomplishments and shares credit on collaborative work.
• Values Differences: Respects and seeks to understand different perspectives. Is sensitive to cultural norms, expectations, and ways of communicating.
• Customer Focus: Provides empathetic listening and proactive problem solving. Ensures a positive participant experience and is thoughtful of participant needs. Exhibits clear and consistent communication with participants to uphold Food Bank programs policies.
• Judgement: Recognizes when to escalate specific situations to the next higher level of expertise. Takes time to collect information, considers impact, and confirms details before making a decision. Seeks input from others or independently verifies assumptions and information before accepting them.
• Self-Awareness and Professionalism: Seeks feedback and is receptive to reflecting on and discussing strengths and weaknesses. Maintains professional boundaries with coworkers and participants and acts with integrity.
• Delivers Commitments: Follows through on commitments. Shows consistency between words and actions and takes responsibility for decisions, actions, and mistakes.

Responsibilities

Participant Enrollment and Referral

• Screen participants for all Food Bank services.
• Enroll participants in food pantries and home-delivered grocery services.
• Refer participants to other Food Bank services (CalFresh, SFP, EFB) and external social services.
• Efficiently and accurately update and manage paper and electronic participant records.
• Monitor compliance with enrollment protocols, communicate follow-up with participants and social service providers, or report partner agency discrepancies to the Bilingual Program Coordinator as necessary.

Customer Service

• Respond to questions, complaints, and concerns of community members (participants, agencies, social workers, etc.) promptly and professionally.
• Respond to inbound calls, voicemails, emails, and texts in a timely manner.
• Use technical tools (Zendesk, Excel, CRM, etc.) to document participant interactions.
• Apply de-escalation techniques to emotionally escalated interactions.
• Ask for support from the Program Manager as needed.
• Ensure a warm, welcoming experience for participants.

Other Program Support

• Problem solve and provide programmatic and customer service support to programs staff and agencies, including off-site responsibilities.
• Support internal and external reporting and surveys.
• Coordinate occasional mass mailings.
• Participate in service improvement efforts.
• Support inter- and cross-departmental projects involving participant outreach and communication.
• Provide administrative and backend support for departmental needs.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Accountabilities

• Participant enrollment and referral over the phone, online, or via paper forms.
• Participant support and troubleshooting.
• Maintaining updated and accurate participant accounts in our database.
• Occasional project-based or ad-hoc on-site enrollment and referral support at neighborhood food pantries.
• Administrative tasks related to participants and their accounts (some tasks may be office-based).
• Compliance with policies and procedures of Food Bank programs.

Requirements

• 1+ years of experience in the non-profit or social services sector working directly with clients facing multiple barriers to receiving services.
• Fluency in English (level 9 score on verbal assessment and level 8 score on written assessment).
• Fluency in Cantonese (level 9 score on verbal assessment and level 8 score on written assessment).
• Experience resolving conflicts by listening, communicating calmly and respectfully to the satisfaction of the client.
• Cultural awareness and sensitivity in working with community members from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to adhere to safety and standard operating procedures.
• Ability to comply with the Food Bank’s confidentiality policies and procedures at all times.
• Dependable and able to accommodate occasional evening or weekend work when needed.
• Ability to perform clerical and computer work temporarily in a variety of off-site and physical arrangements.
• Intermediate computer skills and ability to quickly learn new computer software with training.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience using customer support ticketing software (Zendesk preferred).
• Knowledge of the service delivery system in San Francisco and Marin.

Pay

The position is a fixed-term role, anticipated to end in July 2027. The starting salary ranges from $29.20 to $30.11 per hour, with exact salary depending on experience.

Benefits

• Generous holiday and sick time.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Medical, dental, life, and long-term disability insurance.
• Vacation time.

This position is covered by the OPEIU Local 29 bargaining unit. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values staff who come from the communities we serve. We especially encourage people of color, folks from the LGBTQIA2+ community, and people with disabilities to apply. In accordance with and support of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we encourage formerly incarcerated individuals and those with arrest and conviction records to apply.