OVERVIEW:

Douglas County Senior Services provides many different opportunities for our seniors and adults with disabilities to have nutritious meals throughout the week with our Congregate Dining Program at the Community Center or through the Meals On Wheels Program.

The Congregate Dining Program is open Monday - Friday and prepares between 350-400 meals daily. The majority of these meals, up to 300 of them, are served hot at two of our three locations for Congregate Dining within our County. These locations include the Douglas County Community & Senior Center and at two satellite programs held in Topaz Ranch Estates (TRE) and Indian Hills.

The remaining meals are packaged and frozen to be delivered through the Meals on Wheels Program, which delivers nutrition to homebound seniors within Douglas County weekly or biweekly depending on home location. Staff packages approximately 150 nutritious meals daily for this program.

The Douglas County Community & Senior Center has a commercial kitchen that is licensed and follows all state and federal guidelines in storing and preparing food and supplies. In addition, our Congregate Meal Program is largely grant-funded and follows the requirements of the grant.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

Responsible for supervising the provision of food services in an institutional, residential, and/or non-residential setting; participates in food preparation activities as required.

COMPENSATION &BENEFITS:
0-3% Merit upon successful completion of the probationary period and 0-3% annual merit increases thereafter based upon evaluation score.
Benefits include:

• No Nevada state income tax.
• Stable, friendly/family environment that fosters internal talent with training/educational programs and encourages career advancement.
• Retirement: Participation in the Nevada Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), 29.75% employer-paid.
• Health Insurance: County provides medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and dependents with co-payment by employee dependent and/or family status.
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Employees Assistant Program (EAP)
• Vacation: Accrued at the rate of 4.6154 hours per pay period, or 120 hours per year (increase with years of service).
• Sick Leave: Earned at the rate of 3.3846 hours per pay period, or 88 hours per year.
• Holidays: 11 paid holidays per year.
• Administrative Leave: 5 days per year.
• Deferred Compensation: the County has a voluntary deferred compensation program.
• Douglas County is a drug, alcohol and smoke-free workplace.

Supervises assigned staff and directs the activities of assigned staff; coordinates, prioritizes and assigns tasks and projects; tracks and reviews work progress and activities; participates in the recruitment and selection of staff; undertakes disciplinary action as required; provides input on performance evaluations; coordinates scheduling of staff to ensure proper operational coverage.

• 
  Plans, prepares and creates menus and recipes to ensure proper diets and nutritional content required by regulations; adheres to special dietary needs requiring low sodium, low calorie, low cholesterol, and/or other special diets prescribed by a physician.
• Directly supervises and participates in the preparation of meals according to the daily menu and/or special events/training classes, including all prep work, serving and/or delivery of bulk or individual servings, and packaging of meals, as required; prioritizes work and assigns tasks to food service personnel/volunteers; reviews work and assures work quality and grant compliance.
• Provides training to assigned food service staff in the operation of kitchen equipment such as food choppers, meat grinders, peelers, steam cookers, ovens, mixing machines, warmers, commercial dish washing machinery, griddles, ranges, serving line, etc.; provides training in regard to safe food handling and food contamination protection as well as all applicable OSHA requirements; instructs and demonstrates methods of food preparation, portion control, yield studies, cooking, baking, and storage techniques.
• Inspects, monitors and records kitchen facilities including equipment, dining areas, eating utensils, and food storage areas for safety, sanitary conditions, and functionality; facilitates repairs; performs continuous monitoring of refrigeration, store room temperatures, cooling procedures, cleaning/sanitization levels, and proper rotation of food and supply inventories.
• Directs staff and participates in cleaning activities including dishwashers, defrosting and cleaning refrigerators, disassembling and cleaning stoves, ovens, and grills, all utensils, slicers, and building perimeter to ensure compliance with health codes, sanitation requirements, Fire codes and OSHA.
• Monitors cost control on a per plate basis by ordering appropriate quantities of food items and supplies in accordance with established policies and guidelines; ensures minimal food wastage through proper food preparation processes and utilizing leftovers as ingredients in other meals, as appropriate; maintains necessary reports and records for analysis, grant compliance, and accounting purposes.
• Prepares and submits orders for local food and supply purveyors, to include fresh, frozen, and canned food as well as sugar, flour, wrapping supplies, utensils, and cleaning supplies; performs complete inventories of food and supplies and maintains appropriate supply levels.
• Administers assigned budgets; obtains and maintains kitchen/food related licensing; ensures compliance with all County requirements.
• Receives, processes and accounts for cash; posts payments to appropriate accounts; approves payments of invoices.
• Represents the County with dignity, integrity, and a spirit of cooperation in all relationships with staff and the public.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Education and Experience:
High School diploma/GED; AND four (4) years of experience in large-scale institutional food preparation and volume cooking; OR an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Required Knowledge and Skills
Knowledge of:

• Practices of developing teams, motivating employees, maintaining employee morale, and managing in a team environment.
• Principles and practices of employee supervision, including selection, work planning, organization, performance review and evaluation, and employee training and discipline.
• Principles, methods and equipment used in high volume meal preparation in an institutional setting.
• Nutritional and menu planning guidelines, including state and federal regulations.
• Inventory control and record keeping principles and practices.
• Safe work practices and sanitation related to food preparation and service.
• Standard office practices and procedures, including records management.
• Communicating effectively in oral and written forms.
• Techniques for dealing with a variety of individuals from various socio-economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, in person and over the telephone.

• Planning, organizing, supervising, reviewing and evaluating the work of others.
• Instructing others in work procedures; planning, overseeing and preparing meals in a large scale, institutional setting.
• Ordering and inventorying food and supplies; preparing nutritious and appealing menus in accordance with established guidelines and budgetary constraints.
• Operating, cleaning and performing minor maintenance to large institutional food preparation and cooking equipment.
• Making accurate arithmetic calculations.
• Managing assigned budgets.
• Reading, understanding and following recipes and oral and written directions.
• Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of the work.
• Developing effective work teams and motivating individuals to meet goals and objectives and provide customer services in the most cost effective and efficient manner.
  REQUIRED CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, AND REGISTRATIONS:
  
  • Valid Driver’s License.
  • ServSafe certification.
  
  PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORKING ENVIRONMENT:
  The physical demands described herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
  
  Mobility to work in a typical institutional kitchen setting and use institutional kitchen equipment, strength to lift materials weighing up to 75 pounds, vision to read printed materials, stamina to stand and/or walk for an extended period of time, and hearing and speech to communicate in person or over the telephone.
  
  Work is subject to performance under exposure to temperature extremes, fumes, gases, noise and chemicals.