Company description

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is the leader in New York’s nonprofit farm-to-institution movement, serving 400,000 healthy, delicious, and culturally appropriate meals annually through our diverse human services programs. Through The Teaching Kitchen at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, we train other nonprofits to transform their programs to a farm-to-institution model – without raising costs. The goals of the program are to improve the health of individuals that depend on government-funded meals by increasing their access to fresh, healthy food and to localize institutional food systems to strengthen regional farms and economies and improve environmental sustainability. We have now finalized an eLearning version of our program called The Teaching Kitchen Online to help expand our impact beyond New York City. For more information on our innovative Teaching Kitchen and links to our social media and program materials, visit www.lenoxhill.org/teachingkitchen.

Job description

We are looking for a dynamic, creative and passionate Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator interested in sharing our farm-to-institution model to help nonprofit organizations and schools serving publicly funded meals to serve more fresh, healthy and local food to better support the health of their communities and to strengthen local farms and food systems. The Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will join our expanding team as we work to scale The Teaching Kitchen® at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House across New York State and beyond, helping to make millions of meals annually served by schools and nonprofit organizations healthier, more local and more delicious.

Position Description:

The Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will work directly with food service directors and kitchen staff to help them shift from frozen and processed food to seasonal, scratch-cooked, plant-forward menus with less meat and more fresh food and whole grains. The work can include everything from providing an overview of the benefits of scratch-cooked seasonal menus and local sourcing, to sharing and demonstrating healthy recipes, problem solving equipment and facilities issues, discussing vendors and costing, teaching culinary techniques and sharing tips for engaging staff and clients to support change implementation.

The ideal Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will have restaurant or institutional cooking experience and will also be a generalist with diverse skills and a passion to advance food and health equity. The Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will function as one of the public faces of our five-person team and must be a skilled public speaker and communicator; experience as an educator, trainer or public speaker is preferred; strong interpersonal and writing skills are a must. The Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will engage and build relationships with diverse stakeholders – from institutional food service clients to funders and policy makers – and work to grow The Teaching Kitchen’s role as leaders in the farm-to-institution movement. The position may involve occasional overnight travel outside New York City for trainings, conferences, meetings and more.

The Farm-to-Institution Chef Educator will report to the Director of Philanthropy and Healthy Food Initiatives and will assume diverse responsibilities not limited to:

• Training and technical assistance to nonprofit and school cooks and program staff;
• Cooking demonstrations and nutrition workshops to clients from age 3 to 103+;
• Menu creation, recipe and cookbook development;
• Creation and sharing of video and social media content;
• Public speaking about our work in a range of contexts;
• Writing communications and program materials;
• Outreach and relationship building with diverse stakeholders;
• Research;
• Data collection and reporting;
• Travel for outreach, site visits, presentations, conferences or meetings.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or culinary degree;
• Minimum of 3 years’ culinary experience;
• Experience in teaching, providing cooking demonstrations or public speaking;
• Strong writing and communications skills;
• Skilled at Microsoft Office suite programs;
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred.

Salary range is $62,000 - $70,000 based on qualifications and experience.

To Apply:

Applicants should send a cover letter outlining their qualifications and interest in the program as well as a resume to chefeducator@lenoxhill.org. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. No telephone calls please.

Background:

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, widely recognized as one of New York’s premier human services providers, is a 128-year-old settlement house that provides an extensive array of effective and integrated services—social, educational, legal, health, housing, mental health, nutritional and fitness—which significantly improve the lives of nearly 16,000 people in need each year, ages 3 to 103, on the East Side of Manhattan. For more information on Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, please visit lenoxhill.org and check us out on Facebook or Instagram.

At Lenox Hill Neighborhood House we value respect, diversity and integrity. We are an equal opportunity employer. Lenox Hill Neighborhood House prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. Lenox Hill Neighborhood House conforms to the spirit as well as to the letter of all applicable laws and regulations. The policy of equal employment opportunity (EEO) and anti-discrimination applies to all aspects of the relationship between Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and its colleagues.

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is a client-facing and essential community-serving organization. To keep our clients and our colleagues safe, and to comply with various governmental contractual requirements, all new employees must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 (except where valid medical exemptions apply) and will be required to submit proof prior to the time of onboarding.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, varies DOE, $62,000.00 - $70,000.00

Application instructions

Deadline

November 25, 2022