Market Lead

Description

ABOUT OUR MARKET

Wardensville Garden Market is our on-farm market, where you can find all the goods produced from our bakery, farm, kitchen, and glass studio. Additionally, we feature local and regional products and pantry items produced by farmers, small businesses, and makers. Our market serves as a learning environment for our Junior Crew (local Appalachian Youth participating in our program), where they learn general retail skills such as customer service, teamwork, and product knowledge. They also help to serve our award-winning baked goods and craft our house-made drinks.

With every purchase you make at the Wardensville Garden Market, you support local makers, businesses, and our Junior Crew Program. For our Junior Crew, working in the market helps teach them the ins and outs of a successful retail sales operation with fantastic customer service and hospitality. While enrolled in the program, Junior Crew learn all about inventory, merchandising and store conditioning, customer service, and retail sales technology. Their on-the-job experience covers everything from unpacking orders and stocking shelves to expanding their product knowledge, testing new food items, and helping our guests find what they’re looking for. 

OVERVIEW

We are looking for a warm, hospitality-driven Market Lead to help bring the Wardensville Garden Market experience to life — someone who sees retail as more than transactions, and who finds genuine satisfaction in connecting guests to products, people, and the story behind them.

This role is central to the daily operation of the Market. You will work closely with the Market Manager to ensure the space is beautifully stocked, guests are exceptionally served, and Junior Crew are guided and developed throughout every shift. You bring presence, accountability, and care to everything from opening procedures to the last guest interaction of the day.

Beyond the guest experience, this role carries a real mentorship dimension. Working in the market helps Junior Crew learn the ins and outs of a successful retail sales operation — from inventory and merchandising to customer service and retail sales technology. As a Market Lead, you set the tone for that experience — in the way you stock a shelf, greet a guest, and show up every day

If you are someone who wants their work to mean something beyond the register — and who is energized by the idea of serving a community while growing the next generation of retail and hospitality talent — this might be exactly the right place for you.

This position reports to the Market Manager.

MUST-HAVES

• Hospitality-forward mindset: You make people feel welcome, seen, and important. You’re not a gatekeeper—you’re an agent of possibility. You don’t default to “no,” but instead ask, “how can we turn this into a yes?”
• Storytelling & Mission Connection: You know the story of FWW, our vendors, and our products — and you share it naturally and consistently. You help guests understand that every purchase supports something meaningful.
• Continuous learning: There’s always more to know, and you actively seek it out. You stay curious, seek feedback, and ask the next question to apply what you learn to improve your team and your work.
• Ownership & Initiative: You don't wait to be told. You don’t just notice what’s off—you fix it. You take active ownership of the Market's daily success and set high standards and hold yourself and your team accountable, creating a culture where small details matter.
• Coaching and modeling: ‘We grow more than vegetables’ You develop people. You lead by example and help others grow by providing the tools and encouragement they need to reach their highest potential. You hold high expectations and challenge, but always with support and appreciation. You give clear and useful feedback, and you model what it looks like to live our values in practice.
• System-Minded Evolution: You don't just follow processes — you help build and improve them. You observe, reflect, and contribute ideas that make the Market run better for everyone.
• High volume, high efficiency: You thrive in a busy, dynamic environment. You prioritize without sacrificing quality and keep things moving—even when juggling multiple projects at once. You embrace new projects and aren’t afraid to experiment.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS 

• Must have a valid driver’s license
• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs and ability to stand for long periods of time
• Willingness and ability to commute to Wardensville, WV if necessary.

EXPECTED WORK SCHEDULE

This position is expected to work at least 30 hours a week for five days a week, inclusive of mornings, evenings, weekends and some government holidays.

COMPENSATION

This position is classified as non-exempt with an hourly rate starting at $15.00. In addition to competitive pay, we offer the following benefits for regular, full-time employees:

• generous paid time off structure
• bereavement leave
• employer-paid life insurance
• optional health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurances
• discount on items in the market and our other enterprises

ABOUT FARMS WORK WONDERS

Farms Work Wonders is a nonprofit social enterprise whose mission is to ignite the spark of curiosity in Appalachian youth so they see themselves and their future in new and exciting ways. Our businesses provide local Appalachian youth real-life learning experiences and generate proceeds that are 100% reinvested back into the local community. In 2016, Farms Work Wonders started with the Wardensville Garden Market project—an organic farm and farm stand.  Since opening, our enterprises have expanded to include a market, bakery, glass blowing studio, and restaurant that have created 50+ local, good-paying jobs with around half held by local high school students.

Farms Work Wonders provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.