Official Site of The State of New Jersey

The New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate (OFSA) is currently the only food security advocacy team in the United States that is placed in the highest level of state government, the Governor’s Office. OFSA, established by N.J.S.A. 52:27J-3, is responsible for, among other things: 

• cooperating with research organizations and universities to monitor ongoing gap analysis that identifies areas that are underserved by current food insecurity programs 
• working with State and community partners to develop a strategic plan to address identified gaps in areas that are underserved by current food insecurity programs 
• overseeing the development and implementation of public-private partnerships to address food insecurity 
• coordinating stakeholders to establish a school meals strategy for the state 

The office focuses its work on four areas: supporting state agencies in conducting food security work, supporting the advancement of policy that is aligned with ongoing food security work, collaborating with the philanthropic sector, and supporting and participating in community-driven food security work.  

OFSA is currently seeking interns for the 2024-2025 school year to be based at our office in Trenton, with occasional opportunities to accompany the team on community site visits around the state. This is an in-person, unpaid internship with a required commitment of at least ten hours per week. This position is open to undergraduate students that are in their Junior or Senior year of study, or any graduate student from the following areas: Communications and Journalism, Education, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Public Health, Population Health, Public Policy and Administration, Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Work.

Responsibilities may include any combination of the following based on your background, experience, major, and school requirements:

Communications:

1. Provide support and assistance on maintenance of the OFSA website, including opportunities for contributing original content
2. Provide support and assistance in maintaining OFSA social media pages including Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. May share posts, create original content, and review analytics around social media accounts.
3. Assist with meeting planning and operations including on-site and off-site meetings across the state.
4. Assist with planning and developing additional communications materials including literature about the department, our work, etc. This may include letters, phone scripts, pamphlets, tri-folds, etc.
5. Develop mailing/distribution lists for team use
6. Draft correspondence on behalf of OFSA team members

Policy Work:

1. Assist with tracking pending and newly proposed bills specific to OFSA focus areas
2. Use programs like Policy Mapper for analysis of pending/proposed bills; undertake research around those same bills
3. Assist with outreach to lawmakers and the Office of Legislative Services as needed on OFSA-specific initiatives or to provide education on pending bills; assist on building visibility and awareness around OFSA and our role within the executive branch
4. Provide support to state assembly and senate committees specific to OFSA initiatives
5. Assist with drafting legislative initiatives providing research around similar policies across the country

Programmatic Support:

1. Support programmatic outreach around site visits including sending invitations, scheduling, drafting follow-ups, compiling minutes, and updating tracking sheets. This includes conducting site visits with members of the OFSA team.
2. Assist with programming initiatives and pilots including attending outreach, data, and steering committee calls. May be asked to take and disseminate minutes, schedule meetings, and prepare correspondence to team members. Assist with recruitment and quantitative and qualitative data collection, review, cleaning, analysis, and interpretation.  

Research and Evaluation:

1. Assist the OFSA Research and Evaluation manager on all requested work. This may include conducting literature review; data collection internal to OFSA, other state departments, and external partners; data analysis; filing and organizing data; writing and editing publications; and conducting outreach with OFSA partners.
2. Assist with planning and scheduling meetings for the research and evaluation teams.
3. Assist in developing additional research pilots providing rationale, goals, and objectives. 
4. Assist OFSA Research and Evaluation Manager in preparing for and delivery of presentations around work including power points, graphics, etc.

Please note that training will be provided based on your transferable skill sets and curriculum.  

Skills Required: Strong organizational and communications skills; public speaking; presentation skills both in designing and delivery; ability to organize projects, data, people, and events; experience with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

In addition, a skillset with quantitative and qualitative software, research skills, and data collection will be considered for the position in support of research and evaluation. For those interested in supporting communications, experience with social media and programming with HTML, Canva, Adobe Spark and other applications are highly desired. Experience with social media analytics is also a plus.  

OFSA places high value on lived and living experience with food insecurity, while also upholding a strengths-based and hopeful perspective of its work. Under the leadership and modeling of its director, the office operates with a trauma-informed team culture that intentionally strives to provide psychological safety for each team member and colleague to show up and be seen as whole and resilient, regardless of what they choose to share, and however they self- identify.

Upon hire, interns will be expected to complete their onboarding together and will participate in some tasks and activities to support shared learning.

• Please send a cover letter/letter of interest and resume/cv to OFSA@ag.nj.gov
• Applications will be accepted on a continual basis