Correctional Food Service Coordinator

State-of-Iow; Coralville (IA); On-site; USD 19,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

State of Iowa is seeking a Cook within the Iowa Medical & Classification Center's Food Service department. The role focuses on ingredient procurement, meal preparation, serving, and supervising incarcerated workers to ensure safe, compliant operations.

Employee will work early shifts (approximately 4:30am start) and collaborate with security and administrative staff to maintain quality and safety standards in a correctional setting.

Qualifications

• Two years of full-time work experience in mass food production in a commercial, military, hospital, or institutional setting.
• Two years education and/or full-time experience in dietetics, nutrition, or food management; 30 semester hours may count as one year.
• Current, continuous state executive branch experience with one year as Cook 1, Cook 2, or Baker.

Responsibilities

• Ingredient procurement: order, receive and issue food service supplies to maintain adequate inventories.
• Supervise and train incarcerated individuals in the food service area.
• Meal preparation: process raw ingredients by slicing, grating, cutting or chopping.
• Meal serving: verify inventory before service and portion meals according to menus.
• Deliver food and trays, maintain sanitation and temperature of items.
• Provide direct supervision to incarcerated workers in Food Service.
• Document and train incarcerated workers on procedures and safety rules.
• Perform security-related tasks to ensure a safe environment for staff and incarcerated individuals.
• Complete random shakedowns of food service areas for contraband and document results.
• Record food temperatures and maintain food safety standards.
• Prepare reports using ICON for policy violations and behavioral notes.

Skills

Food production

Food safety

Staff training

Education

Dietetics coursework

Culinary training

Job description

Iowa Medical and Classification Center (IMCC) serves as the reception and classification center for all those entering the adult male institutional corrections system, which is estimated to be 400-500 new commitments every month that are then processed on to the other facilities.

IMCC is a multi-faceted facility that employs a diversified professional workforce providing comprehensive services to both offenders and patients.

A medium security general population unit is in operation at IMCC, and the Center also runs the only licensed forensic psychiatric hospital in the state, providing inpatient psychiatric and evaluation services to non-adjudicated patients.

An additional unit consisting of 178 medical and psychiatric beds was added in 2007 to meet the increasing mental health and medical needs of the correctional population.

Iowa Medical & Classification Center, we offer a wide range of career opportunities in various departments; i.e., Security, Treatment, Medical, Administrative, Business, Records, Maintenance/Trades, Warehousing, Food Service and other support areas.

Assignments of the position includes:

• Ingredient Procurement-order, receive and issue all food service supplies to provide adequate inventories for meals to be produced.
• Supervisor and train incarcerated individuals assigned to this area.
• Meal Preparation-prepare raw ingredients by slicing, grating, cutting or chopping.
• Supervise and train incarcerated individuals assigned to this area.
• Meal Serving-Take accurate inventory prior to beginning service.
• Assemble medically prescribed diets carefully following menus and portion sizes.
• Food Delivery-Deliver food and/or trays and supplies to alternate serving locations, maintain the sanitation and temperature of all food items.
• Provide direct supervision to incarcerated individuals in the Food Service department.
• Train each incarcerated individual in their current work assignment to maintain proper food production and serving procedures.
• Departmental Security-Use knowledge of security to ensure a safe environment for incarcerated individuals and staff.
• Account for and appropriately lock all controlled items including knives and other food service tools.
• Account for all keys and locks following institutional procedures.
• Complete random shakedowns of food service areas for contraband.
• Document shakedowns.
• Pat down incarcerated individuals as they report for work and leave work.
• Food Safety and Sanitation-document all food temperatures
• Training-complete e-learning quarterly.
• Report Writing and Documentation-Use ICON as a tool to write reports for incarcerated individuals that continue to not follow policy, procedures or directive.
• Use generic notes to document both bad and good behaviors.

Hours vary from 4:30am-7pm Monday- Friday, 4:30am-5:30pm Sat/Sun

E-Verify and Right to Work

The State of Iowa participates in E-Verify, a federal program that helps employers confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. Within the required timeframe, new hires will be verified through the E-Verify system to ensure authorization to work in the United States. The State of Iowa also complies with the federal Right to Work laws, which protect employees’ rights to work without being required to join a labor organization. For more information, please visit www.e-verify.gov.

Applicants must meet at least one of the following minimum requirements to qualify for positions in this job classification:

1. Two years of full-time work experience in mass food production in a commercial, military, hospital, or institutional food services setting.
2. A total of two years of education and/or full-time experience (as described in number one), where thirty semester hours of accredited college or university coursework in dietetics, nutrition, food management or a closely related equals one year of full-time experience.
3. Current, continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes one year of full-time work as a Cook 1, Cook 2, or Baker.

For additional information, please click on this link to view the job description. Within a period of time after hire, as determined by the appointing authority, employees in this class may be required to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and endorsements.