Food Service Worker

Food Service Worker

Major duties include setting up assigned stations on the tray line with the correct supplies and food items, serving food cafeteria style by placing uniform portions of food on customers'/patients'/residents' plates, breaking down and cleaning the station when assigned, setting up dining room tables for service, placing food and beverages on tables, and replenishing items as necessary. Other duties include returning soiled trays and dishes to the dish room, delivering meal trays to the patients' bedsides and reporting the patients' comments and complaints to the supervisor or dietitian, preparing beverages according to the number of servings required, preparing fresh fruit/cold salads/dressings/sandwich fillings and cold sandwiches and simple cold desserts in specified quantities, sorting, washing, peeling and cutting cold foods using knives or other equipment, providing assistance to cooks in the food preparation area, such as weigh, measure and assemble ingredients according to standardized recipes, preparing uncooked food items, operating and breaking down and cleaning all equipment assigned to food service and related areas, portioning other food items into standard serving sizes using the proper utensils and specified dishware, preparing boxed/to go meals, making final check of diet trays assembled by lower grade workers for completeness, correct food temperatures, verifying that food items on the tray are appropriate for the prescribed diet, identifying obvious discrepancies between the prescribed diets and the food items designated by the menu, deciding what food items to serve for the most common diets when the diet card or tray ticket identifies only the kind of diet called for, distributing menus and surveys to patients, providing patients with basic information about modified diets and the nutrition services that are available, preparing individual and bulk nourishments and supplemental foods and beverages for patients, following directions in assembling, measuring, weighing, or mixing ingredients for basic formulas and supplemental feedings following standardized recipes and using sanitary techniques, determining the quantities of ingredients needed to prepare required yield, making conversions between the metric system to the standard system, taking nourishment inventories, stocking using first in-first out procedures, replacing expired items, labeling and distributing individual nourishments, sterilizing equipment and sanitizing work areas, working in one or more functional areas of the kitchen such as food preparation, dish and pot washing, dry and refrigerated storage and receiving, and the serving line, performing heavy-duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service and related areas, separating food waste and trash from dishes, glasses and silverware in the dish washing area, unloading food/tray delivery carts, storing sanitized dishes, glasses and silverware, scraping, soaking, scouring, and scrubbing cookware and utensils, moving garbage cans when collecting and transferring trash from the work area to the disposal area, providing assistance to cooks in the food preparation area including assembling, labeling and arranging completed recipe items in preparation for use by cooks, and using a computer terminal to record and retrieve recipe, menu and inventory data and to produce reports.

Work schedule: Fulltime, rotating shifts, to include weekends, and holidays.

Position description title/PD#: Food Service Worker/PD99921S

Physical requirements: Work is performed in kitchen areas where the steam and heat from cooking and dishwashing equipment often cause uncomfortably high temperatures and humidity. Performs work requiring light to moderate physical. 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. Subject to continuous standing and walking, and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. Frequently lifts or moves objects weighing up to 20 pounds unassisted and occasionally lift or move objects weighing more than 40 pounds with the assistance of others.

US Department of Veterans Affairs