Front Desk Specialist

Mid-Ohio Foodbank; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 21,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

Mid-Ohio Food Collective seeks a Front Desk Specialist at the Eastland Prosperity Center in Columbus to greet visitors, assist with intake, and connect customers to services. You will guide navigation, manage referrals, and ensure accurate data records in a welcoming environment.

You’ll support scheduling, form completion, and phone inquiries, while maintaining confidentiality and a high level of customer care for diverse neighbors in need.

Qualifications

• 1+ year of customer service experience (phone, online, and in-person preferred).
• High School Diploma or GED required.
• Basic computer skills, including Microsoft applications.
• Ability to interact with diverse customers with empathy and professionalism.

Responsibilities

• Greet and direct customers, visitors, and partners to appropriate services.
• Complete basic intake and needs identification; provide warm handoffs to teams.
• Assist with check-in, registration, appointments, and forms; answer phone inquiries.
• Route inquiries, manage customer flow, and communicate wait times.
• Escalate specialized needs and maintain up-to-date program knowledge.
• Enter service data and protect privacy, safety, and data security.

Skills

Customer service

Empathy

Professionalism

Education

High School Diploma/GED

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Who We Are

Hi, we’re the Mid-Ohio Food Collective. Yes, we’re a foodbank and collect and distribute an impressive amount of food, but that’s not all. We’re also a group of passionate individuals dedicated to exploring new ideas to tackle tough social issues from food insecurity to poverty to health as a whole. So when life happens, we’re here for our neighbors that need us.

Key Role Details

The Front Desk Specialist is the Eastland Prosperity Center’s first point of contact, ensuring customers, visitors, and community partners receive a welcoming, respectful, and customer-centered experience. This role supports smooth access to services by guiding intake, navigation, and referrals while maintaining accurate records.

Key responsibilities include greeting and directing customers; completing basic intake and needs identification; providing warm handoffs to internal teams and partner organizations; supporting check-in, registration, appointments, and forms; answering and routing phone inquiries; coordinating customer flow and communicating wait‑time updates; escalating specialized needs appropriately; maintaining up-to-date knowledge of programs and referral processes; entering service and outcome data; and following privacy, safety, and data security procedures.

Required qualifications:

• High School Diploma/GED
• 1+ year customer service experience (phone, online, and in‑person preferred)
• Basic computer skills, including Microsoft applications
• Ability to work with challenging personalities using empathy, boundaries, and professionalism

A Typical Day

Your day begins by preparing the front desk area and reviewing partner schedules so you can set clear expectations for customers arriving throughout the morning. As the Center gets busy, you balance multiple touchpoints—walk‑ins, scheduled appointments, and phone questions—while keeping interactions calm, confidential, and solutions‑focused.

You’ll regularly shift between assisting someone who needs help understanding next steps, updating records in the database, and coordinating with on‑site partners to ensure customers are connected quickly and respectfully. When the pace changes, you help keep the waiting area organized, communicate service availability, and flag emerging needs or barriers to the team so the Center can continuously improve.

About the Eastland Prosperity Center

Opening in 2026, the Eastland Prosperity Center is a transformative 67,000‑square‑foot human services hub in southeast Columbus created by the Mid‑Ohio Food Collective. Located near Refugee and Hamilton roads, this innovative facility brings together a free choice food market, on‑site health care through The Ohio State University, city services (including WIC and CelebrateOne), workforce training, and other essential community supports under one roof. Designed to serve at least 100,000 people annually, the Center is a collaborative destination dedicated to addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty while helping our neighbors thrive.

This job posting is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of accountabilities, duties, responsibilities or requirements. Any individual may be required to perform any other job‑related activities or functions requested by his/her manager, subject to reasonable accommodation. Mid‑Ohio Food Collective reserves the right to modify this job description to reflect changes in essential job duties made necessary by changing organizational needs.

Mid-Ohio Food Collective is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability (in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act) with respect to employment opportunities.

Mid-Ohio Food Collective is a Drug-Free Workplace.

Mid-Ohio Food Collective’s pre‑employment Drug Screen includes testing for marijuana (THC). Although marijuana may be legal under certain state laws, it remains an illegal substance under federal regulation and therefore our policy as well. A positive test result for marijuana will be treated the same as a positive result for any other illegal, non‑prescribed, or unauthorized controlled substance.