The Culinary Arts Program Coordinator is responsible for developing and coordinating all classes, programming and private events taking place in the J’s Culinary Studio. This space is a hands-on culinary kitchen with a goal to be the destination for culinary classes and events for the Jewish Community and Southwest Houston. Initiatives of the space include: offering a broad array of culinary experiences for targeted age groups, including special focus on programs that infuse Jewish culture, holidays and tradition; private events for intact groups, including children’s birthday parties; and showcasing specialty visiting chefs. The program coordinator will design classes, hire teachers and assistants to run the classes, purchase ingredients, develop internal and external partnerships, and market the culinary studio and experiences in it. The space is a dairy kitchen and no meat will be brought in. This is a role where social entrepreneurship meets hospitality. Helping to mold and building a new program area from concepts to execution, marketing and filling classes, collaborating with leaders, and building community are central to the role. This position requires working some evenings and weekends to work classes and events.
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION
- Coordinate culinary studio programs, including classes for children, teens and adults, camps, and private events. Together with the culinary committee and instructors, develop ideas for the classes and hire chefs to teach each class.
- Book guest chefs and culinary authors to teach special events.
- Book culinary parties and work with clients on their custom parties.
- Work with our culinary camp director to ensure groceries are ordered and assist with camp scheduling and communication with parents, taking photos and creating weekly communication.
- Work with J marketing department and committee to design promotion strategy for culinary programs and use of the studio for private events. Draft descriptions of classes and partner to drive registration.
- Ensure that our classes meet the participant expectations, seeking feedback through evaluations and follow-up calls.
LOGISTICS MANANGEMENT
- Organize and execute all logistics for culinary programs including ordering of supplies, drafting of class descriptions, managing registration, communication with registrants, staffing of kitchen and preparing for classes with instructors and kitchen team.
- Maintain the culinary studio calendar and collaborate with internal partners at the J on scheduling, when they are using the studio.
- Reviewing the calendar and planning and ensuring the timely purchase of ingredients needed for each class, including sourcing specialty items when needed in recipes.
- Maintain the equipment and stock the kitchen, so that it is in excellent condition and ready for programs. This includes scheduling any necessary maintenance on equipment, keeping a list of supply inventory, replenishing and purchasing items as needed for upcoming classes.
COMMUNICATION, MARKETING & OUTREACH
- Work closely with Culinary Studio Committee Chair and committee, developing programming and evaluating what’s working at committee meetings and regular update emails and meetings. Building a partnership with volunteer leaders is essential.
- Collaborate internally with other departments across the J to develop opportunities for cross-functional programming.
- Together with the marketing department, coordinate marketing materials, including flyers, ads, website posts, social media and features in public relations.
- Develop and outreach the program to community organizations including networking with groups inside the Jewish community to book private and semi-private events in the studio.
ADMINISTRATION
- Track expenses to monitor budget.
- Create class descriptions and submit classes to be entered each semester on the website and back-end program registration software.
- Design and track registration trends across classes and analyze results.
- Design and implement a program evaluation for classes. Analyze results and share with committee and chair to help evaluate class success and future programming.
AGENCY
- Participate in agency-wide meetings and in-service training programs.
- Work to promote programs in other areas and collaborate across the agency with other staff and volunteers to further the J’s mission.