Company description

Yolélé is a revolutionary African food company, introducing the world to delicious traditional African ingredients.

Our mission is to transform the economy of West Africa and strengthen its communities.

Yolélé's first ingredient is fonio: a nutritious, gluten-free, ancient grain that looks similar to couscous. Fonio has been grown and celebrated in West Africa for over 5,000 years and is still grown exclusively by smallholder farmers.

Fonio is drought-tolerant and thrives in poor soil. But until now, it has remained a subsistence crop, relatively unknown outside the growing regions. Yolélé is working to build a fair trade, vertically integrated supply chain and global market for fonio -- improving lives for farmers while combating the effects of climate change.

Yolélé sells fonio at retail and food service locations nationwide, with a concentration in our home base - NYC.

The more consumers we introduce to this awesome new-ancient grain, the greater our impact will be!

Internship description

Yolélé is seeking a passionate, outgoing, driven person to join our team as a Recipe Development Fellow. A Yolélé Fellow will be fully immersed in our business activities and work directly with one of our team members. Our fellows get a hands-on education in entrepreneurship, guerilla marketing, and the food industry- and learn about sustainable agriculture and development in Africa.

This role blends recipe development and performing demos at Whole Foods as a brand ambassador.

As a recipe developer you will work closely with our marketing coordinator and business development director on recipe ideation. You will be in charge of testing, documenting, developing, adapting and editing recipes that highlight fonio- to be used across our marketing platforms and photoshoots.

The position also entails one demo weekly at one of our Whole Foods locations in New York City. As the face of our brand at retail locations you will educate customers, gain insightful customer feedback, attend exciting events, and spread the word on the transformative potential of fonio.

Qualifications:

• A sales mentality: a big smile, a warm and friendly demeanor, and FONIO enthusiasm
• Self-motivated, ability to work independently
• Quick learner able to describe Yolélé/ fonio’s many facets and selling points to different audiences
• Reliable, organized, punctual
• A competent, creative, organized cook
• Stellar communication skills
• An interest in start-up food businesses, marketing, culinary, and/ or sales
• Experience in retail or service industry a plus
• Culinary school a plus
• Recipe development experience a plus
• Interest in West Africa, sustainable agriculture, a big plus

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Yolele team to ideate recipes that highlight fonio including recipes for certain diets: vegan, gluten-free, low-glycemic, as well as super simple meals, creative + outside the box ideas
• Test, develop, and write recipes that highlight fonio: for all of our platforms and partnerships with other food brands
• Aid in recipe/ dish selection for photoshoots
• Aid in photoshoot prep and food styling
• Write accurate, detailed recipes for dishes according to Yolélé recipe style guide
• Photograph all finished recipes with iPhone 6 or newer camera phone
• Shop, prep, cook for, and work one demo at a Whole Foods Market in NYC each weekend

Requirements:

• Ability to travel independently to various Whole Foods NYC locations with fonio dish & supplies
• Ability to shop for, prep, and cook a fonio dish at home to sample at Whole Foods
• Ability to be on your feet for 4 hours

Compensation:

• This position is paid: $500/month, 10-15 hours/ week + all supplies and ingredients reimbursed
• Potential to additionally work or attend exciting food industry events, trade shows, and educational programming

Compensation

this position is: stipend / non-monetary compensation

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline