Position Title: Food Services Director
Department: Meals for Independence / Food Services
Reports To: Meals Director / Executive Director
Supervises: Cooks, Kitchen Leads, and assigned Food Service Support Staff & Volunteers
Employment Status/Hours: Part-Time, approximately 25 - 30 hours per week.
Work Locations: Ossipee and Moultonborough, New Hampshire, with occasional travel to program sites and local food pickup locations
Position Summary: The Food Services Director is responsible for the oversight, coordination, quality, safety, and day-to-day management of food-service operations supporting Ossipee Concerned Citizens, Inc.’s Meals for Independence program and OCC Childcare Center. The Food Services Manager ensures that meals are safe, nutritious, appealing, cost-conscious, properly prepared, and ready on time for congregate and home-delivered meal service. The position oversees menu maintenance, food ordering, vendor communication, inventory, kitchen workflow, food safety, sanitation, staff support, equipment maintenance communication, quality control, and food-service documentation. This is a part-time management and oversight position. Cooks are responsible for routine daily food preparation. The Food Services Director provides leadership, direction, systems oversight, and quality assurance. The Director may assist with meal preparation during emergencies, special events, training, or short-term staffing needs, but routine cook coverage is not the primary function of this position.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Food Service Operations
- Oversee food-service operations at OCC’s Ossipee and Moultonborough kitchen locations.
- Ensure meals are prepared safely, consistently, attractively, and on schedule for home-delivered and congregate meal service.
- Review daily production plans, meal counts, special-diet requirements, route needs, congregate-site needs, and childcare food needs.
- Confirm that kitchen staff have the required food, recipes, packaging, supplies, production sheets, and instructions before meal production begins.
- Conduct regular quality-control checks for meal appearance, portion size, temperature, packaging, labeling, special-diet separation, and readiness for release.
- Ensure meals are accurately packed and separated for delivery routes, congregate sites, special diets, childcare, and other approved meal categories.
- Identify and address operational issues before they affect meal quality, safety, timing, or participant service.
- Communicate food-service concerns early and recommend practical corrective action.
Menu Management and Food Quality
- Maintain and update OCC’s established four-season menu cycle.
- Make routine menu adjustments based on food cost, seasonal availability, product availability, participant feedback, kitchen capacity, staffing, and food quality.
- Maintain standardized recipes, portion sizes, serving tools, production sheets, and food-preparation instructions.
- Develop and maintain planned substitutions and alternate meal options for vendor shortages, supply issues, weather events, or other routine operational needs.
- Review food-related participant feedback, site feedback, complaints, leftovers, food waste, and recurring quality concerns.
- Coordinate menu and nutrition review with the Registered Dietitian or nutrition consultant when needed.
- Plan holiday meals, special meals, community meals, and events within approved staffing, budget, and kitchen capacity.
- Support nutrition education opportunities as appropriate in coordination with the Meals Director and other program staff.
Purchasing, Vendors, Inventory, and Food Bank Coordination
- Maintain a food-ordering calendar and ensure orders are placed accurately and on time.
- Review menus, projected counts, food inventory, storage capacity, and special-diet needs before ordering.
- Coordinate routine food, supply, packaging, and sanitation orders.
- Communicate with vendors regarding shortages, substitutions, pricing, product quality, delivery issues, and invoice discrepancies.
- Maintain appropriate food and supply inventory at Ossipee and Moultonborough.
- Establish and monitor reasonable inventory par levels for food, packaging, cleaning supplies, special-diet items, and other necessary kitchen materials.
- Ensure food is properly received, dated, rotated, stored, and used in accordance with food-safety standards.
- Monitor food waste, spoilage, overproduction, inventory variance, and food-cost trends.
- Review food-related invoices and receiving records for accuracy before forwarding for payment processing.
- Complete monthly food-bank ordering during the final full week of each month.
- Coordinate food-bank pickup each month.
- Ensure food-bank items are inspected, transported safely, unloaded, dated, rotated, stored properly, and entered into inventory.
Staff Leadership and Kitchen Oversight
- Supervise cooks, kitchen leads, and assigned food-service staff.
- Establish clear kitchen responsibilities, production expectations, food-safety expectations, and communication standards.
- Support kitchen scheduling, staff coverage planning, and cross-training.
- Provide coaching, instruction, and feedback to staff regarding recipes, production processes, food safety, sanitation, quality, organization, and teamwork.
- Address routine performance and workflow concerns promptly and professionally.
- Identify staffing, training, attendance, or coverage concerns and communicate them to the Executive Director.
- Promote a respectful, professional, solution-focused kitchen environment.
- Participate in hiring, onboarding, training, and performance evaluation processes as assigned.
Food Safety, Sanitation, and Cleaning Systems
- Maintain a current Food Protection Manager / ServSafe Manager-level certification or equivalent approved manager-level food safety certification required to oversee and run the kitchens.
- Ensure food-service operations follow applicable food-safety, sanitation, storage, labeling, temperature-control, allergen, and safe food-handling requirements.
- Review food-temperature logs, sanitation logs, cleaning schedules, food-storage practices, and kitchen documentation.
- Manage equipment-cleaning checklists and ensure required cleaning tasks are assigned, completed, reviewed, and documented.
- Ensure kitchen staff understand and follow cleaning checklists for ovens, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, steam tables, prep areas, sinks, carts, storage areas, smallwares, and other food-service equipment.
- Conduct regular kitchen walkthroughs at Ossipee and Moultonborough.
- Ensure that refrigerators, freezers, dry storage, workspaces, equipment, and food-preparation areas remain clean, organized, safe, and inspection-ready.
- Ensure cooks and kitchen staff follow established procedures for cooking, holding, cooling, reheating, storing, transporting, and discarding food.
- Address and document corrective action when food-safety, sanitation, storage, labeling, cleaning, equipment, or allergen concerns are identified.
- Immediately notify the Meals Director and or Executive Director of any significant food-safety concern, suspected foodborne illness, kitchen closure, major equipment failure, or risk to participant service.
Equipment Maintenance and Repair Communication
- Monitor kitchen equipment condition at OCC’s food-service locations.
- Maintain an equipment maintenance and repair communication process.
- Ensure staff report equipment concerns promptly, including broken, unsafe, malfunctioning, leaking, overheating, or unreliable equipment.
- Document equipment issues, date reported, location, urgency, and effect on food production or food safety.
- Communicate repair needs to the appropriate repair vendor, maintenance contact, landlord/building contact, or designated person responsible for fixing the issue.
- Follow up to ensure repairs are scheduled, completed, and documented.
- Communicate urgent equipment concerns to the Executive Director when equipment failure may affect food safety, meal production, service timing, budget, or staff safety.
- Maintain cleaning and basic maintenance checklists for major kitchen equipment.
- Coordinate temporary workarounds when equipment is out of service, provided food safety and meal service can still be maintained.
Childcare Center Food Coordination
- Coordinate the food-service portion of OCC Childcare meal and snack needs.
- Review childcare meal counts, dietary needs, allergy information, and planned food-related activities.
- Ensure childcare meals and snacks are safe, age-appropriate, properly labeled, and prepared in accordance with established food-service practices.
- Coordinate child-friendly food options when the senior meal is not appropriate for children.
- Support occasional positive food experiences for children, such as seasonal tasting activities, fruit and vegetable exploration, or age-appropriate food activities, when operationally feasible.
- Work with childcare staff to ensure food needs are communicated in advance and do not create last-minute disruption to senior meal production.
Communication, Documentation, and Reporting
- Maintain accurate food-service records, including food orders, inventory, food-bank receipts, vendor shortages, substitutions, food waste, food safety, sanitation, equipment cleaning, equipment repair communication, and corrective actions.
- Prepare a brief weekly food-service update for the Executive Director and Meals Director as requested.
- Prepare monthly food-service information and dashboard materials, including food costs, inventory concerns, food waste, vendor performance, staffing concerns, kitchen equipment needs, food safety concerns, participant feedback, and upcoming risks.
- Attend the required weekly OCC leadership meeting.
- Collaborate with the Executive Director, Meals Director, cooks, site coordinators, drivers, volunteers, childcare staff, finance staff, repair vendors, maintenance contacts, and other OCC personnel.
- Communicate food-service concerns early and provide practical recommendations or proposed solutions.
Schedule and Work Hours
This is a part-time position of approximately 25 to 30 hours per week. The regular schedule will generally include weekday morning and early afternoon hours to allow for kitchen oversight, staff communication, ordering, inventory management, food-safety review, equipment follow-up, and production quality checks. The Food Services Director must be available for:
- Weekly leadership meeting every Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
- Food-bank pickup on the first Thursday of each month at approximately 10:00 a.m. at the West Ossipee parking lot.
The schedule may occasionally require flexibility for food-bank pickup, vendor deliveries, holidays, special meals, weather preparation, equipment concerns, repair communication, special events, training, or short-term staffing support.
Required Qualifications
- High school diploma or equivalent.
- Current Food Protection Manager / ServSafe Manager-level certification, or ability to obtain certification within a timeframe approved by OCC.
- Experience in food service, commercial kitchen operations, institutional food service, senior nutrition, school food service, childcare food service, hospitality, or a related setting.
- Demonstrated knowledge of food safety, sanitation, food storage, temperature control, labeling, allergen awareness, equipment cleaning, and safe food-handling practices.
- Experience with food ordering, vendor communication, inventory management, recipe scaling, portion control, and production planning.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office and ability to navigate computers and computer systems comfortably and confidently.
- Ability to identify kitchen equipment concerns and communicate repair or maintenance needs clearly and promptly.
- Strong organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to supervise, coach, and work effectively with staff in a professional and respectful manner.
- Ability to maintain accurate records and follow established policies, procedures, recipes, and food-service standards.
- Ability to work independently, prioritize competing needs, and identify problems before they affect service.
- Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.
- Ability to successfully complete required background checks.
Preferred Qualifications
- Active ServSafe Manager Certification.
- Supervisory or kitchen-management experience.
- Experience in a senior nutrition, Meals on Wheels, congregate dining, school food, childcare, healthcare, or nonprofit food-service environment.
- Experience with food-cost monitoring, menu planning, special diets, inventory controls, equipment maintenance coordination, and cleaning checklists.
- Experience working with volunteers, community partners, food-bank programs, vendors, or repair providers.
Physical Requirements
The physical demands described below are representative of those required to perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Ability to stand and walk for extended periods in kitchen, storage, and service areas.
- Ability to sit for extended periods while completing ordering, documentation, scheduling, reporting, communication, and administrative tasks.
- Ability to alternate between standing, walking, bending, reaching, lifting, carrying, sitting, and computer/desk work throughout the workday.
- Ability to lift, carry, push, pull, and move food, boxes, supplies, and equipment weighing up to 50 pounds occasionally, and lighter items more frequently.
- Ability to request assistance, use carts, or use team lifting for items that are heavy, awkward, unstable, or over 50 pounds.
- Ability to bend, stoop, reach overhead, twist, crouch, and access shelves, coolers, freezers, storage areas, and kitchen equipment.
- Ability to work in cooler, freezer, hot kitchen, dishwashing, storage, and food-preparation environments.
- Ability to safely operate or work around standard commercial kitchen equipment.
- Ability to use cleaning products and sanitation supplies safely.
- Ability to communicate effectively in person, by telephone, text, email, and written documentation.
Benefits
- Paid Time Off (Vacation & Sick Days)
- Paid Holidays
- Mileage Reimbursement
- Monthly Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Available
- Community-focused work
Ossipee Concerned Citizens, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. OCC may modify duties and responsibilities as operational needs require.
Pay: $39,000.00 - $42,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Paid training
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
License/Certification:
Work Location: In person
