Green Garden Bakery Youth Manager

TITLE: Green Garden Bakery Youth Manager (Culinary)

HOURS: 40hrs/week (evenings and weekends required)

REPORTS TO: USI Senior Project Manager

LOCATION: Heritage Park Neighborhood, Minneapolis, MN

BACKGROUND: Urban Strategies (USI) is a 501c3 corporation founded in 1978. Currently, USI supports more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families, approximately 100,000 individuals, in 35 unique communities across 19 major metropolitan areas throughout the United States. In Minneapolis, USI has been working for the past 18 years in the Heritage Park neighborhood in North Minneapolis. In 2001, USI was called upon to support the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s efforts to locate the 378 families forced to leave a set of housing developments on the near Northside of Minneapolis as a result of a court settlement-the Holman Consent Decree. The Holman Consent Decree ordered the Authority to replace the dilapidated public housing with new mixed income housing. USI was then responsible for informing the former households of the Sumner-Field and Glenwood-Lyndale public housing complexes of their right to return to the new Heritage Park Apartments. Since the completion of the newly revitalized site, USI has been engaged by the management company, McCormack Baron Management Services, to support the residents of the development as they strive to achieve success. For the first few years after the development was completed, USI’s energy was spent primarily building relationships within the community, identifying community leaders, and understanding the neighborhood’s needs. USI’s expertise is understanding the specific needs and strengths that unique communities present, and then aligning resources, stakeholders, and residents around strategies that build human capital. USI’s approach places value on integrating both the experiences and ideas of the target residents who will ultimately be participating in the programming that is created. To date within Heritage Park, this approach has resulted in high quality programming that displays strong community support and buy in from partner organizations and residents. Our mission is "All families will be STABLE and THRIVING" and to that end we have implemented a variety of place-based strategies in Heritage Park targeting economic mobility, housing stability, health and wellness and education achievement for all residents. It was out of the youth development programs USI had been providing onsite with community partners that the concept of Green Garden Bakery began. Learn more about Urban Strategies at www.urbanstrategiesinc.org

Green Garden Bakery Program Description:

USI has determined that within HP its most successful initiative is Green Garden Bakery (GGB), a youth-run business utilizing produce from their youth garden. The program was founded in 2014 by youth in neighborhood who first recognized that after participating in a few years of cooking and gardening education they had acquired new skills. The youth wanted to capitalize on those skills by creating teen employment in the neighborhood. Youth developed a healthy vegetable based dessert recipe during cooking classes using vegetables in their garden and sold the green tomato cakes at a local festival raising over $1,500. Since 2014, the youth have developed a business model and expanded their business. The youth continue to bake and sell green tomato cakes, along with additional vegetable baked good desserts that meet a variety of health and dietary restrictions and preferences. The program also expanded to include curriculum geared to younger youth so they would have the opportunity to join in skill-building through cooking and gardening lessons at a younger age. Now over 100 K-12th grade youth are engaged in GGB at some level. A group of highly invested teens have developed the GGB executive team to manage the programs decisions, and they lead sub-committees focused on culinary, sustainability, sales/entrepreneurship, and marketing/design. Learn more about Green Garden Bakery at: www.greengardenbakery.org

JOB SUMMARY:

With extensive support of collaborative community partners, USI has secured funding for a new commercial kitchen, training, and workspace within the Heritage Park community. This expanded community space will allow Green Garden Bakery to train more youth and create more jobs, engage more adults within the community, and grow the youth social enterprise. The Green Garden Bakery Production Manager will work alongside Green Garden Bakery’s Youth Sustainability Manager to provide culinary workforce training to the youth leaders, supervise the youth employees in the commercial kitchen, and engage community members in food security.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

RESULT: Heritage Park teens graduate high school college/career ready

Strategy: Green Garden Bakery offers teens real work and leadership experiences

· Create a safe space that supports youth participant’s social emotional learning, peer and adult relationships, and developmental assets

· Facilitate small groups of youth at foundational, intermediate, and executive levels by incorporate hands-on training, experiential learning, and task management surrounding the topics sustainability, culinary, leadership development, and/or professional workforce development.

· Maintain youth employee handbook, policies and procedures, work schedules, and work environment that helps youth thrive in a real work environment

· Maintain a consistent youth attendance and pre/post test reporting process that effectively communicates skill assessment and behavior change.

· Parents and community members are informed and engaged with GGB’s programming and leadership

· Expose youth to GGB related post-secondary courses and career options through coordinating field trips and specialized guest workshops

RESULT: Green Garden Bakery is a sustainable youth social enterprise

Strategy: Sustain, implement, and improve GGB production (culinary and urban agriculture) operation processes and ensure they are compatible with age and skill development of youth participants

· Oversee Production Crew operations and responsibilities

· Increase GGB’s monthly sales and production while decreasing sourcing costs and product waste

· Provide clear communication and coordination amongst GGB crews, executive team, and staff

· Document lesson plans, meeting notes and other project management systems created.

RESULT: Heritage Park families have access to and consume healthy and fresh foods

Strategy: Coordinate cooking classes in GGB’s commercial kitchen

· Work with Youth Sustainability Manager and community partners to provide community cooking and gardening classes, along with other food security initiatives, for youth and families in the Heritage Park Neighborhood.

· Build and sustain the quality partnerships with community stakeholders, organizations, businesses, funders, and volunteers to support food security policy and systems work that benefits Heritage Park families.

USI Administrative tasks

· Submit progress reports, timesheets, and other reporting materials in a timely manner.

· Actively participate in weekly supervision, GGB executive team meetings, and USI team meetings.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

· Food manager certification

· Associates degree and a minimum of 2 years experience teaching content to youth and/or adults

Or HS Diploma and 5 years experience

· Ability to relate well with youth and adults from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds

· Good communication, verbal, written and listening skills

· Computer skills needed include Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook

· Ability to pass a background check and drug screen

Preferred: culinary/baking experience are a plus