Sous Chef

Young World Physical Education; Essex Junction (VT); On-site; USD 32,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Tuition reimbursement

Retirement plan with up to 6% employer

Paid time off

Life insurance

Job summary

Essex Westford School District is seeking a skilled Sous Chef to support the central production kitchen for the Child Nutrition Program at the Essex Educational Center in Essex Junction, Vermont. Under the Head Chef, you will lead hands-on culinary operations for high-volume meals across the district, ensuring safety, quality, and timely service to students and staff.

You will train and coach kitchen staff, manage daily production planning, and collaborate on scratch cooking and Farm-to-School

Qualifications

• Preferred candidates will have at least three years of experience in commercial, institutional, school, healthcare, hospitality, or another high-volume food production setting.
• Experience with scratch cooking, standardized recipes, commercial kitchen equipment, inventory practices, and providing work direction or training is preferred.
• ServSafe Manager Certification is required within six weeks of hire.

Responsibilities

• Preparing, cooking, portioning, packaging, and presenting meals using standardized recipes.
• Supporting daily production planning, workflow, and food distribution.
• Monitoring food quality, temperature, portioning, and presentation.
• Supporting scratch cooking, culturally responsive menus, local food integration, and Farm-to-School initiatives.
• Training and coaching production kitchen employees.
• Assisting with inventory, receiving, production records, and waste reduction.
• Reinforcing food safety, sanitation, allergen-management, and HACCP procedures.
• Coordinating assigned kitchen operations when the Head Chef is unavailable.
• Promoting excellent customer service and positive student meal experiences.

Skills

Leadership

Team training

Food safety

Allergen management

Communication

Education

ServSafe Manager Certification

Tools

Commercial kitchen equipment

Inventory management

Job description

Sous Chef

Essex Westford School District CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAM - Essex Junction, Vermont Open in Google Maps

This job is also posted in Essex Westford School District

Job Details

Job ID: 5872209
Application Deadline: Aug 23, 2026 11:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Posted: Aug 05, 2026 4:00 AM (UTC)
Starting Date: Immediately

Job Description

Essex Westford School District is seeking a skilled, collaborative, and service-oriented Sous Chef to support the Child Nutrition Program’s central production kitchen at the Essex Educational Center.

Working under the immediate direction of the Head Chef, the Sous Chef is a hands-on culinary leader who helps coordinate large-scale meal production for Essex High School, the Center for Technology, and satellite schools throughout the district. The position supports the preparation of high-quality, nutritious, safe, and appealing meals while providing day-to-day direction, coaching, and technical support to production kitchen employees.

Key responsibilities include:

• Preparing, cooking, portioning, packaging, and presenting meals using standardized recipes.
• Supporting daily production planning, workflow, and food distribution.
• Monitoring food quality, temperature, portioning, and presentation.
• Supporting scratch cooking, culturally responsive menus, local food integration, and Farm-to-School initiatives.
• Training and coaching production kitchen employees.
• Assisting with inventory, receiving, production records, and waste reduction.
• Reinforcing food safety, sanitation, allergen-management, and HACCP procedures.
• Coordinating assigned kitchen operations when the Head Chef is unavailable.
• Promoting excellent customer service and positive student meal experiences.

Preferred candidates will have at least three years of experience in commercial, institutional, school, healthcare, hospitality, or another high-volume food production setting. Experience with scratch cooking, standardized recipes, commercial kitchen equipment, inventory practices, and providing work direction or training is preferred.

ServSafe Manager Certification is required within six weeks of hire. EWSD will provide the course and examination and compensate the employee for required training time.

This is a school-year, 8 hour/day position. Paystarts at $23.51+/hour

Regular and reliable attendance is essential, and the positionshall require early mornings. Candidates available to work during our summer meals program is preferred, but not required.

Please review the linked job description for complete responsibilities, qualifications, and physical requirements.

EWSD offers excellent benefits including generous paid time off, medical, and dental insurance, life insurance, tuition reimbursement, and a retirement plan with up to 6% employer contribution.

• generous paid time off
• medical insurance
• dental insurance
• life insurance
• tuition reimbursement
• retirement plan with up to 6% employer contribution

Our district vision is: "Growing hearts and minds, for a better today and tomorrow: every day, every way, every one."

EWSD is committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive environment. Successful candidates must be committed to working effectively with diverse community populations and are expected to strengthen such capacity if hired. Candidates with diverse life and work are encouraged to apply.

EWSD conducts thorough screenings of all applicants being recommended for hire, which may include contacting references not listed on your application. Selected individuals are subject to criminal records background checks and child and adult abuse registry checks. Any offer of employment will be contingent upon acceptable results of these checks at the sole discretion of the Superintendent or his/her designee.

Position Type: Full-Time School Year

Salary: $23.51 to $24.75 Per Hour

Administration > Food Services

Support Staff > Food Service

Job Requirements

• Citizenship, residency or work visa required

Contact Information

• Scott Fay , Director of Child Nutrition Services
• CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAM
• Phone: [phone]
• Email: [e-mail]