Manager, Feeding Futures

Manager, Feeding Futures

The Surrey School District respectfully acknowledges that our schools reside on the traditional, unceded, and shared territories of Coast Salish peoples: The q̓ ícə̓ y̓ - Katzie, the qʼwa:n̓ƛʼən̓ - Kwantlen and the SEMYOME - Semiahmoo First Nations, who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial.

Surrey Schools values an inclusive school district, where equity is deeply embedded and diversity welcomed. We are committed to creating and cultivating diverse, inclusive and barrier-free environments for all applicants, employees, students, and their families. We work to continuously grow and improve our practices, celebrate our differences, and empower people to promote positive change in our communities. Our identity, as Surrey Schools, is expressed in the shared values of openness, fairness and tolerance and recognize the importance of diversity of identity and thought. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Surrey Schools, recipient of the BC Top Employers and Canada's Greenest Employer awards, is the largest school district in BC and the second largest employer in Surrey. Spread across one of the fastest-growing cities in British Columbia, Surrey Schools provides quality education to over 77,000 students with 124 schools sites and a variety of other learning facilities, offering a broad range of innovative programs and services to support the learning of our students. The Surrey School District team of approximately 13,000 employees works tirelessly every day to ensure that children are getting the best start they can, providing the preparation to be our leaders of tomorrow.

The Manager, Feeding Futures, will provide oversight and guidance for the district’s food services programs including the operation of the School Meal Program (SMP) serving approximately 5,000 meals daily. Based on the guiding principles that all food programming is locally sourced, ecologically and financially sustainable, and universal and culturally informed, the program will strive to ensure that all students have sufficient nutrition to fully participate in daily learning activities.

Feeding Futures will offer a variety of breakfast, snack and lunch program options at more than 130 sites including on-site food preparation and/or meals prepared and delivered in collaboration with external partners. The Manager will also oversee contracted cafeteria operations and manage commercial equipment for teaching kitchen classrooms and food canteens. Department budget is $8.7 million annually and staffing includes various job classifications operating in a dynamic multi-union environment.

Reporting to the Director of School and Community Connections, this exciting and challenging opportunity supports the district in the development of policies, regulations and communication plans to ensure schools, staff, parents, and other stakeholders delivering food services comply with legal and regulatory requirements as well as the BC Ministry of Education Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools. A very thorough and practical understanding of, and experience with food safety, nutrition, food service equipment, food program scaling, financial management, human resource management and communications is required.

Responsibilities:

• Development, oversight, maintenance, and adaptation of food service operations in accordance with the Food Safety Act, the Public Health Act, Food Premises Regulation, Fraser Health Food Safety, WorkSafeBC and any other applicable laws or regulations.
• Creating, developing, and launching large-scale food programs in complex environments.
• Monitoring, administering, and reporting on department operations and program budgets with the expectation of adapting operating plans to optimize the use of available resources.
• Recruitment, training, scheduling, management, and evaluation of unionized staff including School Meal Program Aides, Culinary Assistants, Food Service Supervisors, Outreach Workers, and Clerical staff.
• Planning menus to ensure that provincial nutrition standards are met and, where necessary, adaptation of menus and services for children with special nutritional needs including food allergies, religious restrictions, and cultural preferences.
• Selection, maintenance, repair, replacement, and disposal of equipment for all food service operations including domestic and commercial appliances. The Manager will liaise with Capital Planning Office and District Facilities Management, as required, to ensure all equipment installations are compliant with municipal building codes and SD36 policies/standards.
• Management of various software such as the Bullfrog software program providing point-of-safe management for teaching kitchens, School Meal Program ordering, and associated reporting.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Food and Nutrition, Home Economics, Food Science or Dietetics, or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
• Five or more years experience of proven leadership in a large-scale, unionized work environment is an asset.
• Drivers License is an asset.

Interested and qualified applicants can apply by clicking "apply online" below, ensuring to include cover letter, resume, supporting documentation and references by June 7, 2023 at 4pm.

Note: Successful applicants will be required to consent to a Criminal Records Search prior to employment. Only those applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. To all others, thank you for your interest.