Food Service Worker (part - time)

Food Service Worker Position

This Food Service Worker position is located within the Nutrition & Food Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System within VISN 1. This position is part-time at 20 hours per week.

Responsibilities:

• Provides on-going instructions and demonstrates proper work methods to lower grade personnel.
• Prepares and delivers between meal nourishment and necessary tube feedings.
• Conducts hydration and snack deliveries to patients twice daily as requested.
• Checks menus, unit orders, and portioning guide for completeness and accuracy.
• Assists patients with diet restrictions with daily meal choices.
• Sets up cold food items such as salads, desserts, and cold beverages.
• Performs basic food preparation activities such as toast, egg, and coffee preparation.
• Assists cooks by weighting and/or measuring ingredients and labeling them for use in the production area.
• Makes salads including molded salads from prepared vegetables and fruits.
• Responsible for correct portioning of salads, desserts, condiments, and beverages for tray serving units and cafeteria.
• Checks work in progress to ensure compliance with written guidelines and instructions from the supervisor.
• Responsible for placing the regular selective or modified diet cards and menu during serving operations.
• Checks food as it comes from preparation area to determine correctness, quality, and temperature.
• Responsible for sanitation and proper handling of equipment, supplies, utensils, and dishes used in preparation areas.
• Participates in cleaning the work area, serving unit, and/or dining room including floors, equipment, tables, etc.
• Maintains familiarity with all equipment in the unit and reports maintenance issues to the supervisor.
• Reads and interprets regular and modified menu, individual diet cards, or patient selections and places correct items on patient trays.
• The incumbent has a high level of skills and abilities for providing patient centered care and exceptional customer service.
• Daily interaction with veterans to obtain menu selections.

Work Schedule: Part Time, Sun-Thu 230p - 630p, Days off Fri/Sat

Position Description Title/PD#: Food Service Worker (Part-time)/PD99921A

Physical Requirements:

• Food Service Workers perform work requiring light to moderate physical effort.
• They may be required to perform heavy work, such as scouring and scrubbing large size cooking utensils and pushing heavy carts and trucks in unloading, storing, and delivering supplies.
• They are subject to continuous standing and walking, and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending.
• They frequently lift or move objects weighing up to 20 pounds unassisted and occasionally lift or move objects weighing more than 40 pounds with the assistance of others.
• The work is performed in kitchen areas where the steam and heat from cooking and dishwashing equipment often cause uncomfortably high temperatures and humidity.
• The work area is well-lighted but usually noisy from food service activities, and there is danger of slipping on floors where food or beverages have been dropped.
• Food service workers are regularly exposed to hot liquids, sharp cutting blades, hot working surfaces, and extreme temperature changes when entering walk-in refrigeration or freezing units.

Requirements:

• U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Suitable for federal employment, determined by a background investigation.
• Selective Services Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements.
• Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Pre-employment physical required.
• As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Education Substitution of Education: There is no educational substitution for this position.

Additional Information:

• Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• It is a requirement that all HCP to receive annual seasonal influenza vaccination or obtain an exemption for medical or religious reasons.
• Wearing a face mask is required when an exemption to the influenza vaccination has been granted.
• HCP in violation of this directive may face disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service.
• The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies.
• Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave.