Growing Chefs is hiring!
Do you want to support sustainable and just food practices? Build connections between kids and their food? Make local, sustainable food accessible? Engage communities through food? If yes, then this might be the place for you!
LunchLAB is a program that is changing the narrative about lunch by empowering students to learn, cook, serve, and share food with their peers and school community. We aim to transform school food into meals that kids and youth want to eat – delicious, nourishing, and culturally-relevant food that brings students together to experience dignity and delight in their interaction with food.
We’re looking for someone who loves to collaborate, has experience putting out large volumes of food, enjoys working with kids, is creative and imaginative in the kitchen, and has a passion for nourishing food and supporting food literacy.
Salary: $42,952 Annually (based on 28 hours/week)
Benefits: Health and dental plan (after 3 months employed); three weeks paid vacation (prorated to a 28 hour work week) + paid one-week summer shutdown per year + paid two-week winter shutdown per year; 12 paid personal wellness days per year (aka sick days); annual professional development funding; paid volunteer days.
Location: Four days a week onsite in Vancouver LunchLAB schools (exact location TBD)
Anticipated Start Date: September 4, 2023 (flexible for the next superstar LunchLAB chef)
Position Summary:
Your role will be mentor, educator, and chef. Each week, you’ll work with youth to teach them new skills, helping them understand the art and science of cooking and nutrition as well as the joy and celebration of connection to nourishing food.
Through day-to-day kitchen operations, meal planning, preparation, and service, the Chef-In-Residence together with our Chef Educators deliver engaging, non-stigmatizing, nourishing, and culturally-relevant meals that kids want to eat while providing embedded food literacy education and mentorship.
LunchLab Chef-In-Residence is responsible for the day-to-day kitchen operations including meal planning, preparation, and service at their assigned LunchLAB location(s).
Responsibilities include:
Kitchen Operations
Manages and is responsible for ensuring meal service for designated number of students (up to 200) at assigned LunchLAB school
Develops engaging, nourishing, and culturally-relevant menus for students
Collaborates with Executive Chef to design and oversees site-specific program and kitchen procedure manuals
Oversees day-to-day maintenance and general upkeep of equipment and kitchenwares
Oversees day-to-day sanitation practices and ensures FoodSafe procedures are followed at all times
Collaborates with Executive Chef to identify and order ingredients that align with program goals
Manages supplier and vendor deliveries with Executive Chef and school
Recommends improvements to efficiencies, impacts, complexities, and identified gaps in kitchen operations to executive team
Program Delivery
Collaborates with Chef Educator and Growing Chefs program teams to implement weekly food literacy skills curriculum into meal prep for student chefs
Collaborates with Chef Educator and Executive Chef to ensure high quality program delivery and impact
Oversees the safety and security of all those who participate in our programs (children, families, volunteers, staff) through policy implementation
Recommends improvements to efficiencies, impacts, complexities, and identified gaps in food literacy programming structure and delivery as it relates to kitchen operations to executive team
People and Culture
Creates and maintains a positive work environment for staff, volunteers, and student chefs
Leads chef team to be mentors for student chefs in the kitchen
Collaborates to steward positive and generative relationships with teachers, students, volunteers, and general school community
Qualifications and Skills:
Extensive experience in kitchen management with strong supervision and leadership skills.
Passionate about food justice, local food and supporting a strong, local food system.
Comprehensive knowledge of culinary techniques in food production for large-volume kitchen operations.
Experience setting up and running your own kitchen.
Able to create culturally-relevant and nourishing kid-friendly menus.
Would be comfortable working outside of a traditional kitchen setting and willing to improvise and adapt when presented with challenges.
You succeed in a mentoring role and love helping kids learn alongside you.
High level of organization. This is a new program, with the opportunity to transform school food in Vancouver and beyond. You like to keep records and communicate frequently.
Comfortable and willing to perform ongoing administrative tasks.
Job Requirements:
Minimum 3 years experience in a restaurant or catering kitchen or equivalent experience preparing and serving 100+ meals.
Must be available and able to work on-site at assigned Vancouver school(s)
Must be legally authorised to work in Canada
Must be able to lift and move up to 30 pounds
FoodSafe Level 2 Certification (GC able to support acquiring)
The successful applicant will be required to obtain a Vulnerable Sector Check for working with children. Growing Chefs will cover the cost to obtain this check.
Assets but not required:
Valid BC drivers licence
Chef Red Seal certification
Growing Chefs operates on the on the land of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), W̱SÁNEĆ, Lək̓ʷəŋən, and Xwsepsum (Songhees and Esquimalt) Nations. As we work towards a world with healthy, just, sustainable food practices, we continue to learn and explore how to uplift Indigenous food and cultural values within our local food systems.
Growing Chefs is an equal opportunity employer and employs personnel without regard to racialization, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, physical and/or mental access needs, or financial ability.
To Apply:
Please submit your resume and the completed questionnaire below to hr@growingchefs.ca. Review of applications and interviews will begin on a rolling basis August 21st, 2023.
We ask that in lieu of a cover letter, please include in your email with your attached resume the answers to the following three questions in one of the following formats:
Microsoft Word document
PDF
Recorded presentation (visual and/or audio)
Tell us about your connection to local food systems and food justice.
What draws you to LunchLAB?
Describe what you love about working with kids in the kitchen.
Next Steps:
You will receive confirmation via email that we have received your application.
Candidates selected to move on to the interview phase will be contacted to set up a date for an interview no later than two weeks after the selected application was received, ongoing until the position is filled.
In recognition of the labour that goes into preparing for an interview, applicants selected for an interview will receive a $25 honorarium for their time.
Final candidates will be asked to provide up-to-date references who will be consulted.