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Children’s Home Network

Youth Residential Chef

10909 Memorial Hwy, Tampa, FL 33615-2511

On-site · $40k–$55k (as posted)

First seen by offpeak October 12, 2026

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JOB SUMMARY: The Chef is responsible for the overall operation of the kitchen and dining hall in planning, preparing and serving the meals to the children, youth and staff of Children’s Home Network.   The Chef will prepare delicious meals that appeal to the palate of young people. This position is full time and has a 40 hour schedule per week.

 ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

  1. Establishing an annual budget and working within the budget throughout the year.
  2. Organizes the workflow to ensure efficiency in kitchen and dining hall operations.
  3. Creates menus in advance for meals.
  4. Completes menu logs daily.
  5. Cooks and serves weekday dinners for youth. 
  6. Cooks and serves select lunches for youth. Example: summer and weekdays without school. 
  7. Delivers weekend food to cottages. Example: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. 
  8. Delivers weekday breakfasts, snacks, and lunches to cottages. Including beverages.
  9. Places food orders weekly.
  10. Utilizes entitlement. 
  11. Utilizes the local food bank.
  12. Collect, verify, and total meal count sheets daily. Complete edit-check, verify and correct any discrepancies found and file the monthly FDOE claim for reimbursement prior to the 10th of each month. Ensure that staff completes productions sheets on a daily basis to ensure compliance. 
  13. Survey’s youth on preference and for feedback on meals served. Plans weekly menus offering a variety of choices appealing to children, based on survey feedback. 
  14. Conducts the meal planning, ordering, preparation and serving of meals in an appealing manner and in compliance with USDA school lunch program requirements.
  1. Administer and ensures compliance with USDA and Florida Department of Education Food programs, including the National School Breakfast, Lunch Program and the USDA Commodity Foods Program, and maintain program records; submit reports; oversee audits and inspections and attend required training. 
  1. Ensure the Food Services kitchen and cottages kitchens are in compliance with Food Safety, DCF guidelines, and Health Department Guidelines.
  2. Oversee the cleaning and organization of the kitchen and dining hall storage areas to ensure compliance with all Hillsborough County Health Department code and requirements. 
  3. Offers food education and taste tests to residential youth.
  4. Assess the condition of all kitchen equipment and advise supervisor of any needed maintenance, repairs or recommend replacement or purchase of needed equipment. 
  5. Trains residential department program and support staff on safe food handling and storage techniques.
  6. Offers and schedules mentorship/apprentice opportunities to youth in our residential program
  7. Facilitates or provides resources for safe serve class.
  8. Prepares meals for Board meetings, special events, etc.
  9. Oversees the stocking and rotation of supplies in the cottage kitchens to ensure meal items, snacks and beverages are available and fresh.
  10. Receives high meal satisfaction ratings from children, youth and staff.  Participates in the continuous quality improvement process.
  11. Other duties as assigned.

 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

 Education & Experience: 

 High School diploma or equivalent preferred.  Four (4) years restaurant/institutional cooking experience preferred.  Serve Safe Manager certification required or must have ability to obtain within 90 days of employment start date.

 Licenses & Certifications: 

 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities including but not limited to:

 Knowledge of Department of Children and Families rules and regulations regarding the care of children.

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