Company description

About Philo Ridge Farm:

Philo Ridge Farm is a certified organic 400-acre farm located in Charlotte, Vermont, a rich agricultural community in the Champlain Valley, just south of Burlington. The surrounding area is home to many flourishing enterprises, including orchards, dairies, vegetable and livestock operations, and sugarbushes.

Philo Ridge Farm is a diversified farm in its fifth year of production. Our livestock program grazes over 200 acres of perennial pasture and includes 80 Belted Galloway cattle, 30 breeding ewes, 65 lambs, 250 laying hens, and 3,500 pastured chickens. In addition, we grow two acres of organic produce and perennial fruits alongside two year-round greenhouses. Our farming practices build soil health, produce a variety of nutrient-dense foods, reduce the use of fossil fuels, and support the local agricultural community. We produce our own organic compost and hay on-site. The farm is also home to our restaurant, market and commercial food processing facilities, and is a year-round gathering place in the community.

Alongside the owners and leaders of Philo Ridge Farm, our partner, Bio-Logical Capital, helps manage the business. Together we aim to create a new diversified model for small scale farmers, one that will allow both the land and the farmer to prosper. In addition to supporting operations and strategy, Bio-Logical Capital works with the University of Vermont to help monitor and evaluate our impacts on soil health, crop and pasture productivity, water quality, carbon sequestration, and wildlife populations. Our goal is to continue to share our story and data with others who are interested in understanding and supporting regenerative agriculture. For more information, please visit us at www.philoridgefarm.com and www.biologicalcapital.com.

About our Hospitality Program:

In the summer of 2018, we opened the Farm Commons Barn: a 6,000-square-foot kitchen, restaurant and market developed to sell products grown and processed at Philo Ridge Farm. The market serves meals in a casual counter-service style, and offers a curated grocery selection showcasing our meats, fresh produce and other products from local farms and producers. The restaurant is a full-service, fine dining operation that is open year-round, with a winter dining room that seats 50 people and an expanded outdoor dining area that seats 150 people in the summer season. The commercial kitchen and processing facility operate a production cycle year-round, handling the value-added food processing and butchering of our farm-raised animals. We have a year-round staff of 30, growing to 50 in the summer season. The Farm and the Farm Commons Barn allow us to welcome the public and host events throughout the entire year.

Job description

Who We Are Looking For:

Type: Full Time, Exempt, Salaried

Report: Director of Hospitality

Location: Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte, Vermont

Compensation: $65-75K range

Benefits: Health insurance, paid time off, complementary staff meals

Other: Up to $5000 reimbursement for relocation expenses

Philo Ridge Farm is looking for a charismatic and experienced Market Manager to lead our Market operations. We seek a leader who is skillful, personable, hands-on and enthusiastic, and who has the capabilities and drive to help the farm meet its ambitious retail growth goals over the next three to five years.

Experiencing the connection between food, land, and place is a unique and defining attribute of our business. For many guests that come to the Farm, that experience begins in our Market. Positioned at the heart of our campus, the Market is where the community engages with the Farm on a daily basis: it’s the entry point to our hospitality operations, it’s where we share our products and those of the region, and it’s where we showcase our partnerships and celebrate our story. We stock our shelves and cases with ingredients, equipment and resources that inspire us to cook, think, and connect. Strong Market operations leadership is critical to helping the Farm achieve its financial goals and to enabling us to support our regenerative farming, research, education, and community engagement efforts.

We seek candidates who identify with the descriptors below, with the experience and skills to match:

• Inspired by the work we do with an eagerness to contribute to our continued growth and evolution.
• Committed to making tangible, positive impact to our communities, food system, and
• Driven and joyful in taking concepts from idea to execution, and jumping between strategy and tactics.
• Entrepreneurial and comfortable navigating the uncertainty and ambiguity of building something
• Financially literate in developing and implementing analyses to inform operational decisions.
• Relationship builder with energy and empathy to build external relationships and mentor the team.
• Detail oriented with a strong sense of aesthetics, merchandising, and building environments filled with delight.

Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Hire, train, develop and evaluate the Market staff, and provide consistent team leadership and mentorship.
• Provide continuous communication, leadership and training to the team through daily staff line-ups, monthly team meetings and other formats.
• Lead the Market team in providing consistently outstanding guest experience, managing positive guest interactions with staff, and making real-time service improvements based on guest feedback.
• Celebrate the Philo Ridge Farm story, and speak with passion and knowledge about our food and products to team members and Market guests.

Operations & Administration

• Maintain the highest level of aesthetic presentation, quality and effective merchandising in the Market, and integrate feedback from the Hospitality Management and Leadership teams as well as from guest experiences.
• Work with the Market team to select, order, stock and inventory Market products and merchandise.
• Work with the Butchery and Farm teams to ensure all on farm products are consistently merchandised and maintained at the highest quality.
• Work with the Kitchen team to ensure that all value-added and prepared food products are consistently merchandised and maintained at the highest quality.
• Work with the Hospitality Management team to develop an integrated counter-service style food program and interface as needed with the Farm Commons Barn’s table service dining program.
• Manage the Market beverage program, including a well-curated coffee, tea and non-alcoholic beverage program that reflects the core values and mission of Philo Ridge Farm.
• Develop and maintain all POS operations, cash handling, and accurate cash control systems.
• Develop and maintain all opening and closing protocols at Market work stations.
• Supervise the proper operations of Market equipment such as the POS, espresso/coffee systems, beverage dispensing system, refrigeration units, and ice machine.
• Maintain a rigorous safety and sanitation program for the Market, including COVID protocols, illness and injury prevention, safety meetings, and process updates, and maintain full compliance with VT Department of Health and OSHA workplace safety regulations.
• Maintain Market employee records, including performance evaluations, disciplinary write-ups, hours worked, and time off.
• Hold employees accountable to all company standards and practices, evaluate and implement disciplinary actions when necessary.

Financial Management

• Schedule and monitor labor in an efficient, productive and profitable manner, including managing market employee hours, approving and submitting payroll.
• Work collaboratively with the Director of Hospitality to manage COGS, prime costs, and expense percentages to budget.
• Work collaboratively with the Director of Hospitality to manage and achieve the Market’s financial objectives by forecasting needs, preparing an annual budget, scheduling expenditures, analyzing variances, and initiating corrective actions.

Compensation:

$65,000 - $75,000 annual salary
Up to $5000 for relocation expenses

 

Benefits & Perks:

At Philo Ridge Farm, we strive to provide a healthy and exciting learning environment for our team. While the farm is located in the rural town of Charlotte, it is a 20-minute drive to downtown Burlington where you can find restaurants, shops, theaters and a culturally rich community. Employment benefits include accrued paid time off, complimentary staff meal prepared daily, health care benefits, and an employee discount on products in our market.

Compensation this position is : salaried, 50k-75k Application instructions Deadlineno deadline