Farmers’ markets represent a key component of our business model and a significant portion of our revenue. Seeking an ambitious, people person with a deep love of good food to direct the department, pursue new sales opportunities, and lead a team with pride. The right individual will be comfortable with and excited by creating organized, efficient, and replicable systems, training staff, working a market stand, and chatting with our customers face to face. Farmers’ markets are our best opportunity to communicate our values as a bakery, giving the market director a vital role in shaping the trajectory of our company under the direct oversight of the bakery general manager & owner.

Initial job schedule would split on-site market work and overall oversight into a 4-5 day work week of 40-50 hours per week depending on market schedule. A typical week would include:

• One regularly scheduled long (12-16 hour) shift, driving our van to and directly working one of our markets in NYC
• One rotating shift attending one of our markets as an extra person in order to observe, train staff, and improve market knowledge. A typical local market shift is 5-8 hours from start to finish.
• Two to three short (4-6 hour) flexible weekday shifts at the bakery working on overall market operations.

The long-term goal would be to shift entirely towards market oversight as new opportunities arise and market sales allow.

Responsibilities include:

• Identify and pursue desirable market opportunities 
• Hire and schedule for all seasonal (currently 2-4 total), year-round (9-10 total), and pop-up markets
• Train team members directly, as well as create and maintain training materials. This includes creating systems to ensure easy packing of market materials for the starting of the shift, as well as enforcing necessary EOD procedures
• Address market staffing vacancies as they arise, including filling in for market shifts if necessary. This means coordinating staff in both New York City and Philadelphia. 
• Serve as point person for all market-related communications
• Solicit feedback from market staffers and customers about products, sales, and customer experience and convey to the management team
• Communicate with bakers to ensure product and ingredient changes are reflected in signage, to and to help address basic quality control issues
• Ensure product is appropriately packed to maintain quality in transit and at market. Notify management and/or packing team if changes to procedure must be made
• Determine bread/pastry order quantities per market to maximize sales and minimize waste. This includes updating numbers through the week as weather changes, taking into consideration and planning ahead for holidays and other events that affect market sales (parades, marathons, school vacations, etc)
• Coordinate donation, collection, repurposing or disposal of unsold products as appropriate 
• Create & update signage & marketing materials to ensure the information we communicate to our customers is accurate, with particular attention to ingredients and allergy concerns
• Create & oversee market-related social media content
• Stock & maintain market equipment (tents, tables, stands etc.) This includes making sure all equipment is cleaned regularly, mending or replacing equipment as needed, and creating protocol for market staff on proper packing/storage of all equipment
• Organize the renting and returning of vehicles used at weekend markets
• Ensure market vehicles are well-maintained by coordinating service in-house or at outside garage. Ensure market vehicles are up-to-date on registration/inspections

Pay ranges from $52,000-$58,000 with an annual sales-based bonus.

About Lost Bread:

Our goal is to make delicious/nutritious bread widely accessible, drawing from and strengthening local food systems. Since 2017, we have purchased well over 500,000lb of local grain, and also produced a series of zines that explore the bounty of grain grown in the mid-Atlantic region through recipes, stories and journalism. Food & Wine Magazine and The Food Network both named us one of the best bakeries in the country in 2020, during which we also produced well over 100,000 loaves for COVID-19 related hunger relief packages. In 2022, we moved into our current bakery space, purchased a second stone mill, and began wholesaling and distributing our freshly milled flours.