Chef & Director of Farm to Table Education

Sr1 chef farm to table linkedin post · MD

SR1 IS HIRING A CHEF TO LEAD OUR FARM TO TABLE INITIATIVE — AND WE WANT A DREAMER, NOT JUST A COOK

We grow the scholars. We grow the scores. We do not yet grow the food they eat — and that's the job.

SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy is hiring a Chef & Director of Farm to Table Education. Around here, this role has one name: Chef.

88% of our 3rd graders passed the Mississippi ELA reading assessment on their first attempt — more than 10 points above the state average. We did that in four years, in Canton, Mississippi. Now we want a founding culinary leader who can take our Farm to Table initiative from an idea into a working pipeline — real vegetables, grown close to home, landing on real trays — and then keep growing it into more.

This is a design job as much as a leadership job. You're inventing the menu, the garden rotation, the classroom, and the stage.

What you'll build:

• Farm to Table, year one — the pipeline from garden bed to cafeteria tray, starting with what already grows on SR1's own ground, including collard greens from Davis-Green Farms. Scratch cooking, real sourcing, real budget.
• Culinary education for scholars — hands-on cooking, food science, and nutrition tied to Mississippi Academic Standards, alongside our existing Agriculture & Food Science team.
• Culinary education for families — cooking nights, take-home recipes, nutrition literacy built around dishes our families already know and love.
• A global culinary perspective — a rotating "world table" that introduces scholars and families to food and farming traditions from beyond Mississippi. Not a unit, a habit.
• Growing the initiative — Farm to Table is chapter one. Build toward a culinary career pathway, community meal programs, and grant-funded expansion.
• Build the team, tell the story — hire and lead your own kitchen and garden-education staff, lead live cooking demos, and be comfortable on camera for the short videos we plan to build around this initiative.

What we're looking for:

• Professional culinary background — culinary school, chef training, or equivalent professional kitchen leadership experience
• Real food-and-farm depth — you've actually grown something, run a kitchen, or built a food program. Scholars and families can tell the difference.
• Program design experience — you've created a menu, a curriculum, or a food program, not only executed someone else's
• A teacher's and a performer's instincts — comfortable running a cooking demo for a room of kindergartners in the morning and a room of donors that evening, and comfortable on camera
• A builder of teams — you've hired, trained, or led kitchen or program staff before, or you're ready to for the first time
• Food-safety credential (ServSafe or equivalent) required, or obtainable quickly — a Mississippi teaching license is not required for this role

Compensation: base $50,000 on a 12-month contract — a founding-year starting number, not a ceiling. Pay is built to grow with the program and with what you produce: growth steps, partnership and grant incentives, and incentives tied to measured scholar and family learning gains push total compensation potential above $70,000 in year one, with room to grow from there. We keep the exact structure for the conversation once you're in the room — candidates who advance to interview receive a full written incentive guide.

The honest part: this is a founding role for a program that does not exist yet. No Farm to Table program, no built-out teaching kitchen beyond standard cafeteria service, no supply chain beyond partnering Farms' in-kind support and whatever you build next. You will write the plan, find the farms, cook the food, teach the lesson, hire the team, and stand in front of a camera explaining all of it — sometimes in the same week. The heavy lifting is real.

So is the ownership. What you build here will outlast you and feed children who have never been handed anything like it.

If you want a cafeteria to run, this is not the job. If you want to build a food system and put your name on the menu, let us talk.

Apply: email info@sr1cpsa.org with subject line "Chef & Director of Farm to Table Education Application – [Your Name]." Include your résumé/CV, food-safety certification if you hold one, and three professional references.

And one thing that matters more than the résumé: attach a one-page vision. If you had one year, our scholars and their families, and a blank plate — what would you put on it first, and how would you know it worked? Finalists should also expect to cook: as part of our interview process, we'll ask you to lead a short live cooking demonstration and presentation.

www.sr1cpsa.org | 601.206.4544 | Canton, MS SR1 CPSA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Creating the Future as One with A Commitment to Excellence.

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