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Kitchen Manager
Title: Kitchen Manager Job Group Category: Nonexempt Type: Full-Time
Unit: Nutrition Schedule: Mon – Fri, some weekends and evenings Hours: 40/week
Direct Reports: No Reports to: Director of Nutrition Programs
Location: Jacksonville, FL
About Feeding Northeast Florida
Feeding Northeast Florida (FNEFL) is the regional Feeding America food bank serving a 12-county area across Northeast Florida. Through food distribution, nutrition programs, and strategic partnerships, FNEFL works to strengthen lives and communities by ensuring access to nutritious food for all.
Feeding Northeast Florida is building a commercial kitchen designed to increase access to nutritious prepared meals across Northeast Florida communities. This kitchen will support high-volume meal production, medically supportive meal initiatives, community events, and other mission-driven foodservice operations. This role offers an opportunity to help build something meaningful from the ground up while working in a stable, team-oriented environment.
Position Summary:
The Kitchen Manager is a hands-on culinary production role responsible for executing daily food production in Feeding Northeast Florida’s commercial kitchen. This position works alongside the Director of Foodservice, Director of Nutrition Programs, and VP of Nutrition to implement production plans, maintain food quality and safety standards, coordinate volunteers during shifts, and support efficient kitchen operations.
This is a working kitchen role, not a traditional office-based management position. The Kitchen Manager is expected to actively cook, prep, package, clean, organize, and problem-solve alongside the team throughout the shift.
The ideal candidate is calm under pressure, adaptable, highly organized, mission-driven, and able to maintain professional kitchen standards without contributing to toxic kitchen culture. Candidates who enjoy building systems and adapting in a startup-style environment will thrive in this role.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities:
- Execute daily production plans for high-volume meal production, batch cooking, catering, events, and other kitchen operations.
- Prepare, cook, portion, package, and label food items according to recipes, production standards, and food safety guidelines.
- Maintain quality, consistency, organization, and workflow throughout production shifts.
- Assist with event and catering production as needed.
- Adapt to changing priorities, donated product availability, and operational needs in a fast-paced environment.
- Coordinate and provide shift leadership for volunteers working in the kitchen.
- Assist with training volunteers with kitchen tasks, sanitation standards, workflow, and safe food handling practices.
- Support a respectful, professional, team-oriented kitchen culture.
- Support kitchen opening and closing procedures.
- Complete required food safety, temperature, sanitation, and production documentation.
- Maintain cleanliness and organization of kitchen equipment, workstations, storage areas, walk-ins, and production spaces.
- Monitor product quality, shelf life, labeling, and inventory rotation practices.
- Receive and properly store deliveries as assigned.
- Communicate operational issues, equipment concerns, supply needs, and production challenges to leadership.
- Work collaboratively with leadership and cross-functional teams to support evolving kitchen operations and programming.
Job Qualifications
Required
- Minimum of 3 years of professional culinary or foodservice experience.
- Restaurant or institutional foodservice experience required; institutional or high-volume production experience strongly preferred.
- ServSafe Manager Certification required or ability to successfully complete certification upon hire.
- Strong working knowledge of food safety, sanitation, and safe food handling practices.
- Ability to lead workflows and coordinate volunteers while remaining actively engaged in production work.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Ability to work efficiently and maintain composure in a fast-paced environment.
- Basic computer proficiency required, including ability to use Microsoft Office programs, tablets, email, and foodservice software systems; training will be provided on organization-specific systems.
- Ability to work collaboratively with a diverse team of staff, volunteers, and community partners.
- Flexible, solution-oriented mindset with willingness to adapt as programs and operations evolve.
- Commitment to professionalism, teamwork, and respectful workplace communication.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to work respectfully and effectively with staff, volunteers, and community members from diverse backgrounds.
- Ability to maintain professionalism and composure in a busy kitchen environment.
- Demonstrated ability to balance leadership responsibilities with hands-on production work.
- Strong time management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities.
- Growth mindset and willingness to help build systems and processes in an evolving operational environment.
- Commitment to maintaining a collaborative and respectful kitchen culture free from toxic workplace behaviors.
- Thrives in dynamic environments where duties may shift with little notice
- Functions well in environments requiring flexibility, initiative, and responsiveness
Work Environment:
This position operates in a dynamic, mission-driven nonprofit environment within a commercial kitchen setting. Work includes exposure to heat, steam, refrigeration, cleaning chemicals, kitchen equipment, and noise associated with food production operations.
Semi-flexible daily schedule: 40 hours a week or more as needed. Most work will occur during business hours Monday through Friday. Occasionally early mornings, evenings, weekends, and special events may be required based on operational needs. A food bank is a warehouse environment; offices and kitchen spaces experience occasional exposure to environmental effects of operations.
Physical Demands:
Work involves prolonged periods of standing and walking, repetitive motion, bending, lifting, pushing, pulling, and extended food preparation activities. Must be able to safely lift and move up to 50 pounds. Work may include occasional assistance with food distribution activities and exposure to indoor and outdoor environmental conditions.
The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions. The above job description is not an exhaustive list of duties, responsibilities, and skills of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform other related duties assigned by their supervisor.
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