Culinary Volunteer Coordinator

Founded in 1988, Food & Friends provides medically-tailored meals, nutrition support, and friendship to people living with AIDS, cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses. Our team of seventy employees and thousands of volunteers delivers meals and hope to people living in the District of Columbia and multiple counties across Maryland and Virginia. There is no charge or income qualification for our services, which are rendered solely on the basis of medical need. Food & Friends is proud to be a nationally-recognized leader of the Food is Medicine movement.

We seek a Culinary Volunteer Coordinator to work alongside volunteers in our Kitchen and ensure that they follow appropriate protocols for hygiene, food safety, and portion control. The Culinary Volunteer Coordinator will:

• • Provide training, instruction and supervision to Kitchen volunteer teams, to include working alongside them and monitoring their compliance with safe food handling practices;
  • Ensure that volunteers have the materials they need to complete their assignments;
  • Assist with inventory control of food items, including storing deliveries, organizing dry storage areas, and organizing freezer storage;
  • Assist chefs and volunteers with preparation and packaging of prepared food for client meals;
  • Execute daily prep list to prepare and package food items used in the home delivered meals program;
  • Maintain and record meal production numbers; and
  • Ensure volunteer food production areas are clean and hygienic, which includes deep cleaning.

The Culinary Volunteer Coordinator will work a Tuesday thru Saturday schedule with the workday beginning at 5:45 AM and lasting until 2:15 PM. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with an interest in volunteer management or a desire to pursue a non-traditional food service career. In 2025, readers of the Washington City Paper voted Food & Friends the city’s Best Nonprofit and Best Place to Volunteer.

The successful candidate will have a high school diploma (some college or culinary school strongly preferred) and some professional food handling experience. Other requirements include knowledge of sanitary food handling techniques and ability to pass a food handler’s exam; ability to foster a warm and welcoming environment for volunteers; ability to provide instructions verbally; ability to use a computer and basic business software; ability to direct volunteers possessing a range of skills and talents; and ability to be physically mobile, stand for long periods of time, and lift up to 50 lbs. Must be adept at handling unexpected changes in priority or volunteer scheduling. Offer of employment contingent upon a background check and pre-employment drug test.

Benefits include medical, dental, disability, retirement plan, paid maternity/paternity leave, weekly short Fridays, and three weeks of paid leave for new hires. Food & Friends is Metro accessible.