Food Service Associate

Contributes to the Hospital's mission by supporting the efforts of the food service/dietary teams to produce and distribute quality food to our patients and the communities we serve. This position will have an impact on patient, employee and visitor satisfaction by providing superior customer service in a clean safe environment.

Job Relationships: Supervised and reportable to Food Operations Management Team

Responsibilities/Essential Functions:

• Must be able to effectively communicate with patients, visitors and other hospital staff.
• Assembles attractive daily menu items, accommodating diet restrictions, allergies, and ethnic preferences as noted by the Dietary Order.
• Accommodates customer requests within nutrition guidelines.
• Maintains tray-line standards to ensure that patient trays are accurate, timely and of good quality.
• Ensures the maintenance of proper food temperatures and storage.
• May serve food in Cafeteria and assist in any preparation need for retail menus.
• Must follow cash and credit handling procedures when assigned to register area.
• Produces and portions products according to established par levels, utilizing recipes or directions to meet established standards.
• Has working knowledge of diet principles.
• Cleans and sanitizes equipment and utensils as directed.
• Maintains effective and efficient communication with all personnel and patients to ensure the smooth operation of the kitchen.
• Accurately inventories, cleans, rotates stock and discards outdated items, restocks and wipes out refrigerators, records temperatures to ensure sanitation standards.
• Receives and dates shipment for storage.
• Completes all dish-room functions accurately and in a timely way to ensure the proper sanitation of all dishes.
• Completes all functions in the dish-room to ensure that all dishes are washed by 10:30 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM.
• Follows established sanitation guidelines to ensure a clean and safe work environment.
• Adheres to sanitation guidelines to prevent food borne illness and possible spread of infection.
• Maintains a "CLEAN AS YOU GO" policy using prescribed methods as demonstrated by a clean and neat work area.
• Uses proper hand washing techniques.
• Covers, labels and dates food in the appropriate containers.
• Utilizes and stores cleaning agents properly.
• Attends all employee meetings and in-services as scheduled by the supervisor.

Responsibilities/Non-Essential Functions:

• Appropriate dishes, bowls, cups and utensils are used for serving food to ensure attractiveness and correct portion sizes.
• Station is refilled with food or beverages as necessary in a quick and accurate fashion.
• Coffee and iced tea is brewed according to standards and served in appropriate mugs.
• Brings questions referring to diets to management for resolution.
• Refers all patients' and customer questions to appropriate personnel.
• Washes and dries all food trucks after every meal to ensure proper sanitation.
• Ensures that all paper items, straws, plastic are removed from the dishes and trays prior to loading into the dish-machine.
• Station is cleaned and wiped down after each meal.
• Station (i.e., steam-tables, milk-box belt-line area) is turned off, drained, wiped down and sanitized after dinner meal.
• Utensils are rinsed off and put in the pot-sink in the pot-room.
• Maintains clean and sanitary equipment/utensils using prescribed cleaning methods following all sanitation checklists.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Reporting Requirements:

• Reports any questions referring to diets to management for resolution.
• Informs supervisor of any problems that arise either by notifying supervisors during meal rounds or by calling diet office.
• Reports all unsafe conditions and improper articles (such as needles, glasses, etc.) to supervisor immediately for appropriate disposal.

Accountability:

• Shall be accountable for maintaining all food service standards, to ensure that the food prepared is accurate, timely and of good quality.
• Shall be accountable for observing hospital policies and procedures.
• Shall be accountable for observing all policies and procedures of the department, including Safety and Sanitation, Infection Control and Fire Safety.

Qualifications:

• Minimum Education: High School or GED equivalent preferred.
• Minimum Experience: Food service experience preferred, willing to train if necessary.
• Minimum skills/abilities: Must be able to read and write English. Must be able to work in dish room.
• Certification/Licensure: None.
• Training: On-going training in-services required.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Disabled/Veterans