At Drive Change our mission is to support formerly incarcerated young people, and create
quality employment pathways to ensure their economic and emotional wellbeing. We work to
create systemic change and sustainable impact through unapologetically reimagining what’s
possible for the food and hospitality industry.
OUR VALUES:
Education: I am committed to my own growth and education. I commit to learning about the
issues, systems, historical and current, that affect the food system and American Legal System.
Innovation: I continually look for ways to approach our work through innovation and creativity. I
bring new ideas, question the status quo and am committed to being part of the solution.
Hospitality: I approach all members of our DC community with care, empathy and a desire to
connect and meet them where they are at.
Courage: I am committed to taking action in order to center equity and justice in our work and
collective mission.
Collective Accountability: I give and ask for feedback consistently and with an open mind. I
understand that feedback is a gift and investment in personal and professional growth. I hold
myself and others accountable to our values.
BENEFITS:
Medical, Dental, Vision, Life insurance
Generous Paid Time Off Policy
Professional Development Opportunities
CULINARY MANAGER POSITION:
The Culinary Manager is both Manager and Educator. Your ability to transform the kitchen into a
learning environment that builds skills in culinary and food/kitchen systems as well as social
emotional growth is key to fellows having a successful experience at Drive Change. You are
responsible for the management of the Drive Change kitchen and food truck, and the instruction
of culinary curriculum. You will set a high standard for quality in all facets of kitchen operations
and management, and provide mentorship to the fellows as they take part in the program.
Additionally, you will create a dynamic menu that is culturally-appropriate, healthy, cost-effective
and seasonal. This menu will be the basis for all our public-facing outreach—both on the DC
food truck and at specific industry events.
WORK SCHEDULE
The Culinary Manager position is a full time, in-person, and salary/exempt role. A typical work schedule will consist of weekdays with only occasional requirements for weekends or evenings based on fellowship needs or industry and catering event opportunities.
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
- 3+ years professional restaurant/food service experience
- 2+ years management experience
- Drivers License
- NYC DOH Food Handlers License
- Proficiency in Google sheets and calendar
- Problem-solving abilities that can build processes and find and implement actions for
improvements
- Highly organized, with attention to detail and ability to meet deadlines
- Passionate about food, reimagining criminal justice, and building ethical food systems
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Create, continuously improve and lead all culinary training for our 4-month fellowship
program
- Create, improve and implement a curriculum for 16 weeks of culinary training
- Document all menu recipes for clear instruction
- Clearly define and reinforce kitchen and overall hospitality expectations, explicitly and
implicitly
- Establish kitchen protocol, both for practical use and educational purposes, including but
not limited to: order sheets, inventory checklist, staffing calendar, maintenance
checklists, and food safety rules and regulations checklist
- Establish and maintain a standard of respect and organization for the physical and
emotional space
● Monitor and incentivize Fellows learning and skill-building
- Establish and apply routines for kitchen and food truck operations
- Continuously look to refine the culinary training program and build opportunities for the
Fellows to develop life skills through the culinary lens (we acknowledge that while not all
of our fellows will ultimately aspire to a lifelong career in food and hospitality, our
curriculum is meant to impart hard skills they can cultivate for themselves and their
communities as well as for food and hospitality employment)
- Be an exemplary standard of culinary technique and kitchen management, supporting
catering staff and Fellows to troubleshoot culinary creations
- Integrate fellows into the Food Empowerment Initiative in order to offer hands-on learning weekly
Ensure that you support the social-emotional growth of team on a daily basis
- Support a growth mindset, by allowing for mistakes and praising challenges
- Encourage taking chances and exploring new terrain; make space for and expect
self-reflection
- Allow for opportunities for Fellows to problem solve and propose solutions
- Promote critical thinking and asking questions over giving answers and labeling with
your own beliefs
- Promote a culture of teamwork and empathy, of which seeks to understand before any
assumptions
- Utilize and encourage language that uplifts, including confronting (y)our own biases and
choices of humor
- Seek to utilize multiple learning styles, all of which should utilize hands-on learning
through the various styles
- Conduct debriefs, where explicit communication on learning objectives and connections
can be drawn
Ensure compliance of all Labor and DOH standards
- Adhere to all DOH facility compliance and food handling compliance
- Work with Fellowship team to ensure that Labor standards are followed, breaks are
taken each day and fellows are clocking in and out correctly
- Ensure clear communication to Leadership team, Fellows, and any and all Drive Change
stakeholders
Manage and report on Kitchen Budget including Food Empowerment Events
- Ensure that ingredients, kitchen tools and supplies are ordered with foresight and
checked in when they arrive
- Report monthly on program expenses, and be vigilant about tracking all costs and
expenditures, in part for educational purposes
- Own and manage Kitchen Budget and ensure an overall understanding of the P&L
- Mentor and teach the Kitchen Assistant about P&L in order to allow for growth and
learning
Pursue personal growth and learning in order to be an impactful leader and educator
- Learn how to create an environment that upholds multiple learning styles, and reveals
learning opportunities at every corner
- Ensure that you uphold strong practices of investing positively in your staff’s own
social-emotional learning, and being able to concretely link that to strong business
outcomes
- Practice synthesis of information, and then be able to present it in an organized and
digestible format for multiple stakeholders
- Detect pain points and inefficiencies for strategic problem solving; designing
improvements and implementation through leveraging current resources
- Increase your knowledge and respect for food and its culinary possibilities
- Challenge your own biases daily on race, class, business, and justice
- Develop your personal social-emotional growth
APPLY:
Email your resume and your answers to the following questions to people@drivechangenyc.org. No cover letter required.
- What aspects of this role are you most motivated by and why?
- What does the Drive Change tagline, "Reimagine Justice, Reimagine Service" mean to
you?
- Describe a group, community, or team that you have been a part of before. How did your
skills or experience contribute to the health of that group? How would that experience
contribute to your ability to support the DC team and fellows?
- How does your personal and/or professional experience contribute to your commitment
to working towards racial justice in the food and hospitality sector? How specifically will it
contribute to this role's expectations in stewarding others in their own process?