Berkeley Food Institute

Student Administrative Assistant (Title Code 4920: Student Assistant III)

Appointment: August 26, 2026 – May 14, 2027 – 8-10/hours per week

Compensation: $20.30/hour

Application deadline: Friday, July 10th at 5 pm Pacific Time
The applicant must be a matriculated student at UC Berkeley. Priority given to work-study students. 

To apply, submit the following items by email as a single pdf to foodinstitute@berkeley.edu with the subject line “Community Engagement and Administrative Assistant.” Please include the following in your application: 

1. Cover letter (limit to 1 page)
2. Résumé (limit to 2 pages)
3. Contact information for 2 professional and/or academic references

About the Berkeley Food Institute: Established in 2013, the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI) is a collaboration among eight colleges and schools at UC Berkeley (Natural Resources, Public Health, Law, Public Policy, Journalism, Business, Environmental Design, and Division of Social Sciences of the College of Letters & Sciences). Today, BFI is an interdisciplinary research, education, and policy institute that works in partnership with communities to advance a just and sustainable food and farm system. 

BFI has grown into a network of more than 150 affiliated faculty and staff. Through this network, we train tomorrow’s food and farm systems leaders. We support a robust agriculture and food studies curriculum on the Berkeley campus and with UC system partners through the Graduate Certificate in Food Systems, the Food Systems Minor, and our summer UC-wide field quarter offerings. We organize and sponsor events to connect our campus community to the larger food movement. We elevate and catalyze new, timely food and farm systems research. Working with community partners, we connect those policy-oriented research efforts with state and federal decision-makers to advance just and sustainable food and farm systems policy innovation. 

Position: The role of the Student Administrative Assistant is to provide vital administrative support for BFI’s programs (e.g. Education, Agroecology, Policy) and organizational activities. Activities include database maintenance, processing reimbursements, BearBuy purchasing, support for email communications, budget and finance administrative support, donor/fundraising support, and other administrative tasks as needed. BFI will train the Assistant in administrative planning and implementation, Airtable, BearBuy, CADS, and other administrative tasks. The position works closely with all BFI staff and is supervised by BFI’s Executive Director. The position is a hybrid model with in-office and remote work.

Responsibilities

Administrative Support:

• Upkeep of Airtable database, particularly in tracking interactions with media, policymakers, and donors
• Support the management of the Food Institute email and related communications; triage inquiries to the appropriate staff.
• Food Systems Opportunities Newsletter development support.  
• Weekly visit to the mailroom to pick up and drop off packages and mail. 
• Support with scheduling/meeting coordination, including room reservations, catering, AV setup, and calendar management
• Donor outreach support, including thank-you letters. 
• Support BearBuy purchasing
• Preparing reimbursements for staff
• Preparing honoraria requests
• Update donor information
• Program administrative support as needed.
• Assist with other administrative tasks as needed

Required Qualifications:

• Excellent communication skills, with particular attention to detail, both written and visual, and communication across diverse groups 
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team, sharing ideas and offering and accepting productive feedback
• Ability to work independently and to foresee, identify, and recommend solutions in the position’s areas of responsibility
• Comfort with creativity, innovation, and hard work
• Professionalism, courtesy, punctuality, and good humor
• Interest and experience in public service and social equity as core tenets of the UC Berkeley experience and the BFI mission
• Interest and experience in food and farm systems

Desired Qualifications:

• Familiarity with Canva, Airtable, Google Suite, and MS Suite is a plus
• Students with work-study are strongly encouraged to apply

Equal Employment Opportunity:

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. For more information about your rights as an applicant, see: http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/poster_screen_reader_optimized.pdf

For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy, see:
http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct