Kitchen Cook

YMCA North Tyneside; North Shields; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

A community-focused organization in North Shields is seeking a passionate Kitchen Cook to join their cafe team. The role involves preparing delicious meals, adapting menus to trends, and contributing to community initiatives. The ideal candidate has experience in a cafe and relevant qualifications in food hygiene. Benefits include enhanced holidays and gym membership. This opportunity provides a platform to make a positive impact while enjoying a creative cooking environment.

Benefits

Enhanced holiday

Birthday off

Employee Assistance Programme

Discount at Cafe and Nursery

Free gym membership

Training opportunities

Qualifications

• Essential experience in a cafe environment or qualification in food hygiene.
• Ability to work flexibly and accommodate the needs of the business.
• Experience preparing child-friendly meals a plus.

Responsibilities

• Prepare high-quality meals including cafe dishes and baked goods.
• Adapt menus in response to customer demand and food trends.
• Support the nursery by preparing meals during cook's leave.

Skills

Relevant experience in a cafe environment

Food hygiene qualification

Food preparation experience

Job description

Kitchen Cook (Bank Staff)

An exciting opportunity has arisen within our cafe team for a kitchen cook to join us!

LOCATION: YMCA North Tyneside, Church Way, North Shields, NE29 0AB

CONTRACT TYPE: Zero Hours – Bank Staff

SALARY: £12.60 – £12.89 per hour

Who are we?

YMCA North Tyneside is a dynamic Voluntary Sector Organisation committed to youth and community programmes across North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Teesdale. As part of the global YMCA movement, founded in London in 1844, we are proud to be the world’s largest and oldest youth movement. With operations in 119 countries impacting over 64 million people annually, we continue our mission of empowering individuals and communities.

Guided by our values, we believe in the potential of everyone and strive to foster inspiring, serving, believing and thriving communities. Our cafe and kitchen play a vital role in this, providing wholesome, homemade meals that bring people together.

About The Role

We are looking for a passionate and creative Kitchen Cook to join our team and help us make a difference. This role is ideal for someone who loves cooking from scratch, enjoys trying new things, and thrives in a fast‑paced environment.

You’ll take pride in preparing delicious, high‑quality meals – including homemade cafe dishes, freshly baked goods, and buffet‑style meals – while ensuring cost‑effectiveness and waste reduction. You’ll work closely with the cafe team to adapt menus in response to customer demand, food trends, and seasonal ingredients. In addition, you’ll play a key role in our developing catering offer and supporting our free community meals, ensuring that every meal served is fulfilling and made with care.

From time to time, you will also support our nursery, covering for our nursery cook during periods of leave. This includes preparing nutritious, child‑friendly meals that meet dietary and allergy requirements.

If you want to use your skills to create great food while positively impacting the community, we’d love to hear from you.

Benefits

In addition to joining a great team, our colleagues also benefit from enhanced holiday, your birthday off, access to a free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme, 24/7 GP Helpline, discount at our Café and Nursery, a free YMCA North Tyneside gym membership for you and a loved one and training opportunities on various topics such as Safeguarding, Mental health and Health and Safety.

To be successful, it is essential that you have relevant experience in a cafe environment and/or qualification in food hygiene or related fields. Previous experience in food preparation or serving is also acceptable.

Please note, the post holders must be able to work flexibly depending on the needs of the business and must be available for occasional overtime and weekends.

If you’re interested in this post and would like an informal chat, please contact us on 0191 2575434 and ask for Shona Stapley (Cafe Supervisor) or HR, both will be happy to arrange a time for you to discuss the role and expectations in further detail.

Closing date

Please apply ASAP without delay if you’re interested as we will be interviewing as we go.

Interview process

One Stage Interview.

Proposed start date

ASAP

To Apply

Please apply by providing a cover letter detailing why you believe you are suitable for the position and an up to date CV. Please follow the link below to our online application form which will also ask for a CV to be uploaded.

Online Application Form: https://form.jotformeu.com/ymcanorthtyneside/ymca-online-application-for-e

Additional information

Please note: The health, wellbeing and safety of our colleagues and candidates during this time is of paramount importance, with this in mind, we have refreshed our approach to recruitment.

YMCA North Tyneside is committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity amongst the workforce, we aim to be an equal opportunities employer and seek to create an inspiring and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and value inclusion and diversity, which we demonstrate through our activities, policies and working practices.