Culinary Coordinator

Somerville is a city that upholds progressive principles for both employees and residents alike. If you are looking for a culture that embraces innovation, empowerment, and collaborative involvement, Somerville not only embraces these talents, but encourages them. Creative, hands on collaboration with passionate dedication are at the core of the City’s workplace culture.  Challenging and fast paced, Somerville also offers a generous benefits package that embodies a strong work life balance. Not only is it a “Model City”, as termed by The Boston Globe, but it is also a model employer.

Statement of Duties

The Somerville Arts Council seeks a Culinary Coordinator to help with the Council’s Nibble program---a cultural culinary economic development initiative.  The ideal candidate will have experience and desire to serve an immigrant community focusing on culinary, cultural, and workforce development.  We seek candidates who have experience in working in the food industry and knowledge of food-handling regulation, catering, and working with immigrant communities.

Nibble is the food programming arm of the Somerville Arts Council.  Our mission is to celebrate and advocate for the culinary arts as the intersection of culture, community, and economic development.  We lead cooking classes, food tours, and entrepreneurship workshops in Somerville to support the local food economy by encouraging food tourism, fostering culinary entrepreneurship among immigrant cooks, and providing a platform for rich cultural exchange. In the summer of 2018 we are opening a Nibble Kitchen in Union Square to host rotating restaurants and cooking classes.

Essential Functions:

Nibble Entrepreneurship Program (NEP):

• Conduct NEP outreach efforts to find Nibble participants and create awareness of the program
• Assist Cultural Director to structure, launch and run series of workforce development workshops
• Coordinate NEP guest speakers schedule, payment, and curriculum
• Oversee scheduling of NEP classroom space
• Help generate syllabi, class handouts, PowerPoint presentations
• Coordinate translation services as needed
• Communicate with participants and collaborators (potential teachers & students, “consultants” etc.) to continually cultivate the program
• Work with Cultural Director to customize entrepreneurs’ educational experiences – finding specific resources, mentors and checking in with them regularly to assess progress and give feedback
• Coordinate with Cultural Director to create NEP pipeline that leads participants to use Nibble Kitchen; act as a liaison between NEP and kitchen.

Oversee Nibble cooking classes for public

• Help reach out to old teachers & new teachers to schedule classes
• Help organize “test” class dinners as needed
• Develop class descriptions with teachers
• Help “prep” teachers by sending them guidelines; creating a class “schedule”
• Handle promotion: post classes on SAC site, EventBrite, Nibble blog, press releases, Facebook, Instagram
• Oversee Nibble classes, including: making introduction on behalf of Arts Council, assisting teachers, and overseeing proper clean-up
• Receive payments and process according to departmental procedures.

Other Nibble responsibilities

• Organize & maintain Nibble files (all electronic and paper records)
• Assist Cultural Director with promotional materials via Nibble website, social and traditional media,  such as writing press releases and creating online events
• Work with Arts Council team with planning, curation and running of large culinary events –  e.g., festivals and fundraisers
• Help organize, curate and run Nibble’s international market tours in Union Square. 

Physical and Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills
Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing.  May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30 lbs.)

Motor Skills
Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills
Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Send your resume and cover letter by Monday, May 7, 2018 to:

City Hall Personnel Office
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville MA 02143
Fax: 617-666-4426
TTY: 1-866-808-4851
Email: employment_opportunities@somervillema.gov

City of Somerville residents are especially encouraged to apply.

The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request.

Individuals with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures, in order to access the programs and activities of the City of Somerville or to attend meetings, should contact the City’s ADA Coordinator, Nency Salamoun, at 617-625-6600 x2323 or NSalamoun@somervillema.gov.