Dietary Assistant

Sullivan County Community Hospital • Sullivan, IN

1d

About The Position

The Dietary Assistant supports cafeteria, patient meal, and food preparation services. The role includes preparing service areas and equipment, presenting and serving food, following standardized recipes and portioning requirements, washing dishes and cookware, maintaining clean and sanitized areas, and supporting food storage and equipment upkeep. The Dietary Assistant also assembles meal trays according to therapeutic diet requirements, supports trayline operations, prepares nourishment, and helps ensure timely and accurate meal service. The position follows department procedures and applicable safety, sanitation, infection-control, quality-assurance, and HACCP requirements. Additional duties include maintaining temperature charts and meal and money counts, handling cash and change according to policy, and performing other assigned duties.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent.
• One year of public food service training.
• One year of public food service and commercial food preparation experience.
• Understands public customer relations and communicates with the public professionally, courteously, and helpfully.
• Maintains current and ongoing working knowledge of food preparation.
• Ability to follow standardized recipes.
• Positive and effective communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate and accomplish more than one activity at a time.
• CPR certification.
• ServSafe certification.

Responsibilities

• Comply consistently with established behavioral expectations.
• Greet customers positively and help make their visit pleasant and accommodating.
• Prepare assigned cafeteria equipment and service areas, including the steam table, beverage area, cash register, salad bar, tables and seating, and tray setup station.
• Stock cafeteria service units with dishes, silverware, hot and cold foods, baked goods, beverages, desserts, condiments, and salad bar foods in time for service.
• Serve customers consistently, cost effectively, and according to predetermined portion sizes.
• Keep department areas clean and attractive.
• Perform dishwashing promptly and maintain the dish machine and pot-and-pan area in clean, sanitized condition.
• Review menus and assemble food and supplies for daily preparation.
• Follow standardized recipes and department policies, procedures, standards, and practices in food preparation.
• Prepare specialty items for special functions as directed.
• Prepare attractive and varied food items for the cafeteria and Meals on Wheels as directed.
• Place stock in designated areas and promptly report outages and shortages to management.
• Wash pots and pans using correct sanitizing techniques; sweep and mop floors; receive and stock storage areas.
• Assist with care and maintenance of department facilities, equipment, and supplies.
• Follow department policies and procedures concerning objectives, quality assurance, safety, environmental cleanliness, and infection control.
• Assist with closing the department in compliance with safety and security procedures.
• Assemble meal trays according to diet requirements and prepare nourishment according to therapeutic needs.
• Maintain knowledge of general and therapeutic diets, including pediatric, geriatric, and nursing-mother diets; study the current diet manual and attend in-service education on therapeutic needs.
• Read and modify menus correctly.
• Perform assigned trayline duties, including placing hot and cold beverages, loading food carts in room order, delivering carts to the correct units, and retrieving cards.
• Keep patient cardex information current when taking messages and orders from nursing units.
• Prepare accurate counts of items needed for trayline service to prevent delays.
• Comply with HACCP and sanitation regulations, follow safety rules, and practice infection control procedures.
• Document required cleaning and temperature monitoring and report variances to the supervisor or director.
• Maintain temperature charts, cafeteria meal counts, and daily money counts.
• Prepare monies in par values daily and request change in whole forms according to accounting policy.
• Secure the cash register when leaving the area and maintain cafeteria furniture in good condition.
• Maintain the trayline starter station and perform other duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED