Kitchen Operations Coordinator - FEAST With Us

Overview

Reporting to: Operations Manager

Line manager of: Chef Team (Permanent, Contract / Agency)

Hours: 35hrs per week

Salary: c£31k p/a

Location: In person - various locations in London (Camden, Westminster, Islington, Barnet, Hackney)

About FEAST

FEAST’s mission is to improve the nutrition, wellbeing, and health of people at risk of food insecurity. We work across London, partnering with charities and community organisations to deliver impactful services and programmes; in homeless hostels, mental health day centres, community and faith centres. We tackle food insecurity by providing nutritious meals using surplus food, and nurturing community connections. These are more than just a meal; they’re welcoming, inclusive, social spaces that bring people together and reduce loneliness. Our Healthy Eating on a Budget Programme empowers people by building nutrition knowledge, and developing practical cooking, food hygiene and budgeting skills. They build confidence to help people make healthier choices to achieve nutritional independence. FEAST is also committed to broader systemic change through nutrition research and collaborative food partnerships to ensure residents have access to nutritious, affordable and sustainable food.

Our values:

• Collaborative: We work together as one team with our stakeholders openly and respectfully – bringing diverse skills and experiences to design and deliver our services and achieve our vision and mission.
• Inclusive: We value equity, fairness and dignity, and create a positive and inclusive environment for our team, volunteers and service users.
• Empowering: We provide inspiration, opportunities and support to enable our team, volunteers and service users to develop capabilities, confidence and independence.
• Innovative: We are curious and creative - proactively seeking new ideas to improve ourselves, the organisation and our services to make a bigger and longer lasting positive impact for our stakeholders.
• Empathetic: We are sensitive and understanding – we actively listen and learn from our team, volunteers and service users to better appreciate and adapt to their situations, challenges and perspectives.

Overall Purpose of the Role

The Kitchen Operations Coordinator’s role is key to FEAST’s mission; improving nutrition and health through nutritious community meals and practical healthy cooking on a budget sessions in FEAST’s charity and community partner venues across central and North London. You will inspire and lead a team of FEAST chefs with a shared passion for nutritious cooking using surplus food. You will oversee day-to-day kitchen operations, maintaining high food safety and quality standards, training and supervising the chef team and kitchen volunteers, managing inventory and sourcing adequate food and non-food supplies, coordinating meal delivery, managing on site venue service partner relationships, maintaining food hygiene systems and documentation across FEAST kitchens.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Chef Training, Management & Resourcing (20%): Work with the CEO/Operations Manager to recruit and contract new chefs. Line manage and develop a team of permanent and freelance contract chefs. Work with the Operations Manager and Nutritionist to develop appropriate training for new and existing chefs. Train and support chefs and volunteers to prepare balanced, high-quality meals to a consistent standard. Ensure adequate chef cover as required for each service venue via a rota for at least three months ahead. Liaise with the operations team as needed and communicate to the chefs and service venue partners. Work with the chefs to design menus that are healthy, appropriate to the service user profile and varied, from a combination of surplus, donated and purchased food. Liaise with the Volunteer Coordinator to make sure kitchen volunteer slots are filled. Lead meal service delivery if needed in cases of staff absence.
• Kitchen Operations Management & Coordination (20%): Work with the Operations Manager and Community Partnership Coordinator to plan and set up new FEAST services using a standard approach. Oversee day-to-day operations of the service venue kitchens. Identify and implement improvements to processes and systems. Manage and develop on site venue service partner relationships. Monitor kitchen equipment and food storage, arranging repairs and replacements as needed. Make recommendations and enact processes to minimise food wastage.
• Food Hygiene & Safety (20%): Ensure compliance with food hygiene, health and safety, and allergy management standards. Register new service venues with the relevant environmental health team, and liaise with the EHO with regards to inspections and any action plans. Embed HACCP / Safer Food Better Business processes and guidelines in each venue. Ensure chefs have appropriate and up to date food hygiene certificates. Conduct regular food hygiene checks. Ensure all food items and kitchen products are stored correctly and according to standards. Ensure cleaning and temperature checks are being reported correctly. Collaborate with service venue staff to maintain the cleanliness/tidiness of the kitchens and ensure kitchens are deep cleaned regularly (as agreed in SLAs). Perform Risk Assessments and share reports with relevant partners and FEAST Operations team, and maintain risk and incident registers.
• Supplies & Logistics (20%): Identify food and non-food requirements for each service venue with the chef team. Coordinate food sourcing (surplus and purchased) and donor/supplier relationships to ensure consistent stock of fresh and long-life ingredients at the best value, quality and as sustainably as possible. Move food between venues as needed to ensure sufficient supplies and minimise wastage. Work with the Volunteer Coordinator to schedule meal deliveries from production kitchens to delivered venues.
• Administration & Data Collection (10%): Maintain accurate records of food surplus received, waste, and meals produced, and submit in line with the monthly data collection timescales. Maintain accurate records of food hygiene checks across service venues. Maintain records of EHO inspections, reports, and action plans. Ensure contractor and agency staff invoices are submitted to the Operations Manager by the monthly deadline. Ensure all receipts and expenses for service venue supplies are submitted to the AutoEntry system by the monthly deadline.
• Operations Team Collaboration & Support (10%): Collaborate with the Nutritionists on recipe development and planning. Work with the Impact & Marketing Coordinator and Operations Manager to identify what impact data to collect from service venues, and develop improved ways to record and analyse. Support to the How to FEAST programme which aims to create a new delivery model to support community organisations to establish and deliver community meals and HEB programmes.

Line Management Responsibilities

3 permanent chefs (plus freelance contractors to cover holidays and absences)

Skills, Experience & Knowledge

Essential:

• Kitchen / catering management over multiple sites
• Planning, preparing and cooking healthy, balanced meals in a professional catering kitchen or busy community kitchen
• Team management and development
• Good communicator, strong interpersonal skills
• Strong organisational skills; able to manage multiple priorities and work to deadlines autonomously
• Level 3 food hygiene
• Knowledge of food hygiene and health and safety regulations
• Experience working with volunteers and diverse community groups
• Commitment to tackling food insecurity and supporting vulnerable communities
• Confident user of MS office and other management tools and systems
• Proactive problem-solving; agility to respond to changing needs and priorities of a growing organisation
• High attention to detail to ensure quality of service provision
• Passionate about creating meaningful change, and driving FEAST’s mission forward
• DBS registered

Desirable:

• Full UK driving licence
• Experience in charity, community food programmes, or social enterprise settings
• Understanding of nutrition and ability to plan balanced, affordable menus
• Familiarity with London geography and community networks
• Working with vulnerable groups and safeguarding processes