Are you an accomplished catering professional looking for a role where you can really make a difference?

Can you be a mentor as well as a manager?

Would you like to run our beautiful Woodlands Café in Leavesden Country Park, where you will both serve and support the local community?

Do you relish the challenge of building your own team, and providing opportunities to vulnerable adults to gain independence and develop their skills?

One YMCA provides a range of social housing, sports, health & wellbeing, children’s services, youth and community activities for the benefit of local people and communities. With a turnover exceeding £15 million and over 350 staff, the YMCA is committed to making a difference in local areas, through the services we deliver and the partner organisations we work with.

Our Woodlands Café is a much-loved community hub, with a strong emphasis on sustainability. We follow a simple ethos: to provide great food, to operate sustainably, and to care for the community and environment around us. As the Café Manager, you will support and champion our values.

After years of successful operation by a third-party operator, we are going to renovate Woodlands and bring all operations and staffing in-house by the Summer. You will be pivotal to our success, since you will be recruiting and managing your entire in-house team of up to ten employees, who will run the café and kitchen, welcoming and supporting visitors.

What makes this role different to a typical Café Manager post?

As well as the opportunity to work in a peaceful, picturesque environment, you will enjoy the fulfilling mission of understanding and serving our local community. You will ensure product, ambience and service collectively create an environment that is welcoming and inclusive. You will be passionate about helping all members of the community, including your employees, to belong, contribute and thrive.

Although your staffing is likely to be drawn from the traditional job market in the first instance, in due course you will provide work opportunities in our Café to individuals who have previously faced homelessness or long-term unemployment, working in partnership with colleagues within One YMCA. As such, you will upskill a broad spectrum of adults and young people to re-engage with the world of work, and to support their journey to independence and employment. Although this may be a new challenge for you, it is one that you will personally relish, and you will bring sensitive mentoring skills.

There may be opportunities to further develop your career if we open similar enterprises in different locations.

About you:

You must be both caring and commercially-focused. You will have experience of managing a catering operation, with responsibility for all operations, revenue and staff. You must have demonstrable experience (supported by qualifications where applicable) across health & safety and food hygiene legislation, with a relevant qualification in hospitality and catering.

You will be passionate about developing a first-class catering offering and getting the very best out of everybody who works there.

You must be able to work evenings or weekends when required.

Please read carefully - How to apply:

We have kept the application process simple, but please read these instructions carefully since we can only accept applications where the information requested has been provided.

Firstly, please read the full job description (which can be downloaded from the vacancy listing on our Careers Pages).

When you apply, you will be asked to upload your CV and a covering letter. Your covering letter MUST respond to the following three questions. You are welcome to add extra supporting information if you wish.

1) Please describe your experience and qualifications in hospitality and catering.

2) Please explain how your relevant experience in managing people and operations makes you the ideal person for our role. While you might not have experience working with and mentoring vulnerable adults and young people, you should explain why you believe you would be able to support them to work in the Café.

3) Please state your notice period, or the earliest date you can join.

Further Details

• Location: Abbots Langley WD5 0GN
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Contract Time: Full Time
• Salary: £25,609 - £28,328 Per Annum
• Expiry Date: Sun, 9 May 2021

An Enhanced DBS check is required for this post. 

Please note that appointments are normally made at the entry point to the salary range.