UWE Kitchen Manager Job Description

About Soft Landing Missoula and United We Eat:

In the fall of 2015, Soft Landing Missoula was born from a grassroots effort by Missoula community members with the goal to do more for refugees fleeing war and persecution. At the time, Montana was one of only two states in the nation that was not participating in resettlement. One short year later, and a lot of hard work by many, we saw the arrival of the first refugee family to land in Missoula in decades. SLM now functions as a 501(c)3 non-profit with a mission to help Missoula, Montana be a welcoming, supportive, and informed community that can assist refugees and immigrants to integrate and thrive. Working alongside many incredible partners, SLM provides ongoing support to refugees by helping them meet their physical, educational, and social needs as they settle into our community.

United We Eat is SLM’s food-based programming that has a goal of using food to provide a cultural bridge to our greater community, as well as social and economic opportunity for Missoula’s refugees and immigrants. For families forced to leave everything behind, the unique things that can be carried, the things that are kept in hearts and heads, oftentimes are recipes and traditions surrounding food. In 2017, with interest and requests from refugee families, SLM began to provide a platform for people to feel valued by sharing their food with their new community and bring a little bit of that tradition to Missoula. Evolving over the years to include assistance at Missoula’s two farmers’ markets, partnerships with restaurants for “Supper Club” dinners, organization of holiday cookie sales, and most recently, the launching a successful pilot program in the summer of 2019 that provided 150 pick-up meals a week, United We Eat has become an integral part of Soft Langing’s programming. In 2019 alone, we worked with 12 refugee and immigrant chefs to create and sell around 2,500 meals and thousands of cookies. This engaged over 600 customers and put over $20,000 directly into the hands of our chefs.

Job Description:

We are currently looking for an experienced, creative, and compassionate “people person” to oversee all aspects of UWE@home related to the kitchen. The United We Eat Kitchen Manager will work directly with refugee and immigrant chefs, volunteers, and other Soft Landing staff to create a delicious and valuable product for Missoulians, that provides economic benefit for the chefs, and is financially stable for Soft Landing Missoula. This is a dynamic job that will have variable daytime, evening, and possible weekend hours. Current UWE Programs include: United We Eat @home, Grab and Go, Virtual Cooking Classes, and Cookie Sales. Future programming may also include in-person Supper Clubs and events as COVID allows, as well as other new programming as developed in partnership with refugee and immigrant chefs and according to the mission, goals, and capacity of Soft Landing Missoula.

This is a full time, 35 hrs per week (negotiable) at $18-$20/hr DOE, for someone interested in food-based social enterprise, refugee and immigrant issues, and management of a dynamic, fun, kitchen environment.

Benefits include:

Medical, Dental, Vision (no monthly premium for employee)
4 weeks paid vacation
6 weeks paid parental leave
Some flexible hours and an awesome team of co-workers in a casual but hard working organization

This position reports to the Program Manager of United We Eat.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Kitchen Management:

The Kitchen Manager is expected to fulfill the bulk of their hours Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to align with our programming, while Thursday and Friday are more flexible. Some evening and weekend hours will be required.
Complete and maintain ServSafe Certification through Missoula City/County Health Department.
Ensure that all food and products are consistently prepared and served safely in accordance with all relevant food safety agency requirements.
In coordination with the PM, submit and track all required paperwork with the Health Department and other applicable agencies.
Coordinate and purchase all ingredients and equipment needs, including unusual and specific needs.
Ensure that all equipment is kept clean and in working condition through personal inspection and by following the facility’s preventative maintenance programs.
Ensure kitchen safety standards on a daily basis.
Control ingredient and packaging cost and food waste.
Maintain cleaning schedules for the kitchen facility including floors, mats, walls, hoods, other equipment and food storage areas according to facility and program policy.
Check and maintain proper food holding and refrigeration temperature control points.
Properly receive orders each week and check products for quality and quantity.
Train and monitor kitchen personnel in cleanliness and sanitation practices.

Personnel Management:

Directly supervise, schedule, and manage kitchen assistant, dishwasher, and volunteers with support of program manager.
Directly supervise refugee and immigrant chefs with the support of the program manager, including tracking hours.
Provide orientation of program rules, policies and procedures and supervise the training of chefs, kitchen volunteers, and employees in safe operation of all kitchen equipment and food safety best practices.

Program Operations:

Work with PM to build and maintain professional relationships with partners.
Work with PM to seek guidance and feedback from chefs to inform program development.
Participate in keeping tidy electronic records for all chef recipes, including portion sizes, any ingredients with special ordering procedures, and serving directions. This will go in a shared folder as arranged by PM.
Prepare and transcribe home recipes in coordination with the chef to create a product that is able to be commercially created in large quantities, utilizing available tools as needed, such as video examples, translators, and online imagery.
Record kitchen expenses in weekly budget for all programming.
Participate in marketing efforts such as taking pictures and making sure PM knows about great stories. May directly help PM with social media if/when needed.
Prepare weekly invoices for Grab & Go program.
Maintain inventory for both UWE@home and Grab and Go supplies and packaging.
Work with PM to develop future programming that benefits our chefs and community
Prepare required paperwork, including receipts, reports, and schedules in an organized and timely manner.
Make a beautiful (and delicious!) product and experience for customers.
Work with PM and ED to evaluate current programming and imagine future possibilities!
Work with PM to map out resources in the community and create partnerships for trainings and other opportunities.

Qualifications:

Energetic, compassionate, humble and a good positive sense of humor.
Innovative and creative thinker.
Experience managing staff.
Experience and interest in working with diverse communities.
Interest in economic opportunity for under-served populations.
Passion for and significant experience in the food industry- both front and back of house.
Ability to acquire and maintain personal certifications necessary for the job with an interest for additional personal skills development.