Job Description

About Double Trellis Food Initiative

Double Trellis Food Initiative is a dual-impact nonprofit that provides free, dignified meals to food-insecure Philadelphians and offers paid culinary training to justice-involved youth. Co-founder and Executive Director Matt Stebbins organized Double Trellis with a two-pronged approach from the outset. Originally a mutual aid project providing protestors with food, we quickly pivoted to serving unhoused neighbors in areas where protests were taking place. Stocking mutual aid fridges and community organizations during the Covid shutdown of 2020 became an integral part of our work. Our mission has evolved into something much larger than the sum of its parts. Since our formalization from mutual aid project to nonprofit organization in 2020, we’ve served over 150,000 meals across 14 zip codes—using donated farm fresh produce and rescued food to build a near-zero-waste system that tackles food insecurity and workforce barriers at the same time. Our work is efficient, collaborative, and rooted in lived experience.

Mission

Double Trellis Food Initiative creates systems of mutual support through free, dignified, near-zero-waste meals for Philadelphians experiencing food insecurity; and paid culinary training for youth who have been impacted by the justice system.. 

Vision

We envision a Philadelphia where food is abundant, accessible, and shared with dignity; where youth impacted by the justice system find pathways to meaningful work; and where intersecting systems of care grow stronger through collaboration—like a double trellis, lifting all who are connected and supporting each other.. We believe in growing together: feeding neighbors, creating jobs, and making Philly stronger from the ground up.

About the role

We are seeking a highly organized, experienced, and results-driven chef to cook at our commissary kitchen, facilitating our daily pick-ups with partner organizations and managing volunteers throughout the day. This role is responsible for large scale batch cooking in a commissary kitchen environment, ensuring food safety compliance, and maintaining high culinary and operational standards. The ideal candidate will bring strong leadership, systems thinking, and a passion for food production and food sovereignty.

Responsibilities

• Work with the Program Director and ED to develop and implement SOPs to ensure consistency, efficiency, and safety.
• Manage team and skills development within team
• Volunteer management and coordination, ensuring volunteers are informed of expectations in a kitchen environment as well as filing necessary documents pre/post volunteer shifts.
• Inputting weekly volunteer schedule on shared menu doc w/ Program Director using SignUp & Notion.
• Daily meal pick-up coordination with community partners, ensuring meals are distributed between fridges and organizations according to each fridge or orgs needs.
• Consistency in communication with DT team & community partners on times of arrival, scheduling changes from DT or from community partners, and capacity to give or take meals & produce.
• Maintaining relationships with community partners via check-ins on needs, resources, or organizational changes & communicating updates w/ Program Director & ED.
• Monthly site visits to partner organizations for surveying response of meals from community members, organizational efficiency and other information.
• Administrative duties, including: emailing weekly reminders to volunteers, managing waivers, maintaining volunteer database
• Other duties as needed

Requirements

• Excellent leadership, social, & organizational skills
• Passionate about DTFI’s mission of food with dignity for all
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds and work on your feet for up to 8 hours at a time
• ServeSafe certification, or willingness to obtain certification, required
• Strong understanding of food safety regulations and sanitation standards.

Preferred experience

• 1+ years of experience in commercial or high-volume food production.
• Experience in commissary, catering, meal kit production, or multi-unit restaurant support.
• Experience with spreadsheets and CRM management; familiarity with: Google Workspace. Familiarity with Notion and Airtable is a plus.

Location and Team Structure

This position is primarily onsite at the Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises, 310 S. 48th St, Philadelphia, PA with a few hours a week of hybrid work.

Compensation

This is a W-4 employee position Wednesday through Saturday. Wednesday - Friday 1pm - 7pm; 10am-4pm on Saturday. Compensation starts at $22/hour. This role requires 25-30 hours per week, with occasional overtime.

Nondiscrimination

Double Trellis Food Initiative is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions at DTFI are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without discrimination due to age, race, color, creed/religion, disability, or any other category protected by law. We highly encourage individuals from marginalized groups of any kind to apply.

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