Position Location: Primarily South Vancouver; a few days in Coquitlam in August

Application Deadline: Review of applications begins Jan 13, 2025

Position Dates: June 9-August 29. 4-day weekend August 2-5

Pay Rate: $19.50-$20.50/hr. All seasonal staff receive paid sick leave.

Hours of work: Monday-Friday, 8:15-5:30. Average of 40 hours/week; some weeks may be up to 45 hours during July

IMPORTANT NOTE: Position is pending funding, which may alter final employment contracts. This is a Canada Summer Jobs position. Applicants must be 30 or under, eligible to work in Canada, and a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or have refugee status.

The Position

Are you a skilled cook or chef who loves sharing cooking with kids? Do you pride yourself on maintaining a clean, safe, and joyful cooking and learning environment? Does the idea of gluten-free, vegan, beet brownies cooked in a camping oven excite you? Can you inspire kitchen confidence in the youngest of chefs, and encourage an adventurous spirit in vegetable-skeptical eaters? This might be the position for you!

Cooking and eating delicious, farm-fresh food is central to Camp Fresh Roots! The Food Program Specialist manages and facilitates all aspects of the camp food program, cooking daily with up to three groups of 15 campers ages 5-12.  Each group makes a lunch and 3-4 snacks in our outdoor kitchen weekly. In June, the Food Program Specialist will assist with some farm field trips along with preparing for the summer. They report to the Camp Directors, and work closely with the Camp Program Staff. 

Job Duties

• Cook with Kids
  • Facilitate campers harvesting and cooking their own food (a total of 3 lunches and 9-12 snacks weekly).
  • Plan kid-friendly, veggie-forward, culturally diverse menus that can flexibly use available farm produce. Most foods are vegan with occasional optional dairy.
  • Incorporate age-appropriate cooking skills into the cooking program, including food safety and hygiene, measuring, knife skills, reading recipes, etc.
• Support Program Staff in Cooking with Kids
  • Train Program Staff in basic food safety, simple snack preparation, and kitchen use rules.
  • Appropriately delegate and work collaboratively with camp staff while cooking to manage many moving parts - kids, fire, knives, food safety, etc.
    
  • Coordinate and support staff in implementing cooking programs in Coquitlam in August; lead weekly lunches in Coquitlam
• Maintain a food safe outdoor kitchen.
  • Establish and communicate kitchen procedures which ensure safe food handling by all
  • Ensure food is prepared with dietary needs and allergens in mind
  • Review and manage cooking and food service supplies inventory and make recommendations for additional supplies (needs, wants and dreams)
  • Manage food inventory, including purchasing within a set budget, and coordinating with Farm Team members about what can be harvested on site
• Food Program Administration
  • Collaborate with the Camp Directors to create cookbooks based on existing templates
  • Submit receipts, expense reports, incident reports, and other reports in a timely fashion
  • Create a written report at the end of the season with what worked and what can be improved
• Before camp starts, facilitate spring field trips in Vancouver and/or Coquitlam

Qualifications

• Experience working with kids ages 5-12
  • Experience cooking with kids strongly preferred
• Experience with group cooking, including working with various dietary needs
• Passion for food and food education
  • Education and/or experience in dietetics, nutrition, food systems teaching, farming/gardening or other related fields preferred
• Strong communication and organizational skills, with a focus on collaboration and cultivating joy
  • Ability to speak multiple languages a plus. Languages frequently spoken in our communities include Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, Punjabi, Farsi, French, and Ukrainian.
• Able to follow and enforce policies and procedures to ensure camper and staff health and safety, especially regarding food safety and kitchen cleanliness
• Supportive of a body and food neutral approach to nutrition education
• Able to work in an outdoor kitchen for up to 9 hours a day
• Able to lift up to 30lbs
• Current FoodSafe and First Aid, including Child and Infant CPR, will be required before position starts; funding for this training may be available
• Must pass a criminal record check to be able to work with children and vulnerable populations
• Must meet Canada Summer Jobs Requirements; minimum age 19
  
• Driver's license and access to a vehicle (for grocery shopping) preferred
• COVID-19 vaccination is strongly recommended for the health of staff and campers.

Compensation Package

Pay: $19.50-$20.50 per hour, plus 4% in lieu of vacation

Paid Sick Leave

On the job training and professional development workshops

Discount on produce and access to culls

How to Apply

Fresh Roots is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from underrepresented groups.

Submit a resume, a short cover letter OR video introduction, and name, phone number, and email address for 3 references. At least one reference should be able to speak to your experience with kids and one speak to your cooking experience. 

Your cover letter or video should

• introduce yourself
• share why you want this position and what makes you uniquely qualified
• share what you hope to gain from the position if hired

Videos should be no more than 3 minutes, and must be shared via a link in the “website, blog, or portfolio” line. Cover letters should be no more than 500 words and must be uploaded as a document. Please note that we are not judging videos based on your video editing skills, and neither videos nor cover letters are preferred. Choose the option that best lets you shine.

We regret that due to the high volume of applicants only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

About Camp Fresh Roots

Camp Fresh Roots offers joyful, risk-aware day camp programming led by well-trained, caring staff on Fresh Roots schoolyard farms and food lands in South Vancouver and Coquitlam. We welcome approximately 300 campers each summer from a wide variety of backgrounds and abilities, and we offer sliding scale registration to make our camps as accessible as possible. Staff receive 40 hours of training, including in depth training on health and safety, camp programming, and diversity and inclusion. Learn more about the camp at freshroots.ca/camp. 

About Fresh Roots

Our Vision is Good Food For All, which is realized when youth have the skills, capacity, and will to act as food citizens and land stewards, to grow and share healthy food for themselves, their families, and the planet! To make this vision a reality, we cultivate educational farms and programs where students dig into meaningful connections with the land, food, and each other, inspiring communities to build just food systems.