Chef-in-Residence

Growing Chefs is hiring!  

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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 use edible education 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) with the possibility of extension. 

Benefits: Health and dental plan (after 3 months employed); three weeks paid vacation + 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 to five days a week (9am-3pm) onsite in Vancouver schools (exact location TBD). Up to one day of computer admin weekly remote/in-office. 

Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible (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, ordering, 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.  

Chef-in-Residence positions are responsible for the day-to-day kitchen operations including meal planning, preparation, and service at their assigned LunchLAB location(s). 

Responsibilities include:

Supports the Programs & Engagement Director to train chef teams. 

• Fosters positive work environment for staff and volunteers
• Leads culinary and kitchen operations aspects of training process
• Identifies knowledge and skills gaps on chef teams and develops training accordingly

Meal Prep and Service

• Manages meal service for designated number of students at assigned LunchLAB school
• Develops engaging, nourishing, and culturally-relevant menus for students
• Collaborates  to build supplier and vendor relationships that align with LunchLAB and Growing Chefs mission and policies
• Manages supplier and vendor deliveries
• Collaborates with admin team to manage budgets, feedback, processes and systems
• Collaborates with Chef Educator and admin teams to develop and implement weekly food literacy skills curriculum into meal prep for student chefs

Manage School Kitchen

• Collaborate to oversee chef team function and flow as it relates to kitchen operations
• Designs and oversees program and procedure manuals and documents kitchen procedures
• Supervises day-to-day maintenance and general upkeep of equipment and kitchenwares
• Responsible for the safety and security of all those who participate in our programs (children, families, volunteers, staff) through policy implementation
• Accountable for food procurement and meal service that meets program needs and aligns with Growing Chefs mission and policies
• Ensures day-to-day operations have proper food storage and transport that follows FoodSafe procedures
  
  

Kitchen Leadership

• Develops and manages a positive work environment for staff, volunteers, and student chefs
• Ensures work environment, partnerships, ordering, and meals are mission and values aligned 
• Collaborates to lead and mentor student chefs in the kitchen
• Collaborates to manage usage of school garden produce (if applicable), and supplier orders and deliveries 
• Leads stewardship of relationships with teachers, students, volunteers, and general school community
• Collaborates with senior coordinator and school administration/teachers to structure service days in accordance with staggered lunches, shared kitchen space, and involvement of student chef/clean teams
  
  

Delivery of Growing Chefs Programs 

• Leads delivery of high quality programming in schools and in the community
• Collaborates to deliver Community Eats SOYL summer program 
• Collaborates to deliver Growing Chefs’ Classroom Program 
• Recommends improvements to efficiencies, impacts, complexities, and identified gaps in the program delivery model to executive team
• Develops, improves, and leads delivery of edible education lesson plans and learning activities for GC programs
• Leads program delivery alignment with GC mission, values, and policies
• Supports Program Coordinator to oversee volunteer activities of the ground
• Leads and oversees establishment of a positive and engaging program environment for all those participating

Promotion of Growing Chefs

• Promotes program in culinary community and builds network of chef recruits
• Assists with fundraising events and opportunities

Qualifications & 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 varied, 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 Vancouver schools
• 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.

Asset but not required:

• Valid BC drivers licence
• Chef Red Seal certification

Note: This role will predominantly work to deliver programs specifically for Indigenousyouth and communities.  In an effort to prioritize a team that represents the communities we serve, we encourage applications from those who identify as Indigenous. We encourage you to self-identify in your application. 

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 just and 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:

1. Please submit your resume and the completed questionnaire through this link. Applications will be reviewed upon reception. 

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. The first interviews will begin in mid-October.

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.

Apply now