RCS looking to hire 50+ cafeteria workers
“In order to run schools,” says Eric Smith, director of school nutrition, “you must do, at minimum, two things. Get children to school and feed them.”
Rutherford County Schools is seeking to hire more than 50 cafeteria workers.
Smith invites all interested candidates to apply immediately – especially if they want to make the difference in the day of a child. He describes the position as one of joy.
“When we have events at school, like Halloween, or national book day – our employees will dress up. They do that kind of stuff all the time as part of the community for the school,” Smith explained as example of the atmosphere that exists in the cafeterias.
Apart from the relationships built with amazing students, the position offers several unique benefits including stable, daytime hours; weekend and holidays off; and most recently, a pay increase.
The School Board last week approved a new pay scale for cafeteria workers with pay for someone with no food service experience starting at $14.32 per hour. Those with three years of experience start at more than $15 an hour with step increases with each additional three years of experience.
The reason for the pressing need to hire more workers is there are more meals being served, Smith said.
“It’s not like we don’t have the regular staff,” Smith said, “it’s that we need more staff to serve the extra meals we have out there. Now that we are doing free breakfast, we are serving 16,000 breakfasts a day and 28,000 or 29,000 lunches.”
Those free breakfast and lunches are providing economic relief to many families while also giving students the nutrition they need to have a productive school day.
“If you want to be around kids, and you love kids and like making the happiest part of their day better, (then join us),” Smith said. “The people we have, they really like what they’re doing. I need to get them some help.”
Both full-time and part-time jobs are currently posted on Twitter and LinkedIn, with at least 50 open school nutrition positions currently available for immediate hire.
