Diet managers oversee food service operations in facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and colleges. Their responsibilities include budgeting, compliance with regulations, and meeting the specific nutritional needs of each resident, patient, student, or client. They also hire and train staff and may conduct on-the-job training sessions. Additional responsibilities may include special food for celebrations and public relations.
Typical responsibilities of a diet manager vary from facility to facility. In most cases, the manager is responsible for all performance and operations of the dietary department. Facilities likely to hire diet managers include hospitals, nursing homes, schools and colleges. Ultimately, they are responsible for analyzing the needs of each resident, patient, student, or client at the facility. Other responsibilities may include budgeting, security and compliance with government regulations.
In most cases, a hospital’s diet manager will oversee all aspects of the food service, including budgeting, purchasing supplies, producing, distributing food, and hiring qualified staff. Typically, this person also coaches, schedules, and leads team meetings. Often, the manager can attend workshops and seminars to stay current with government regulations. Typically, the diet manager consults with patients to teach them about healthy meal planning.
Diet managers at nursing homes have similar responsibilities. As many of their patients are geriatric, most of the training is geared towards the special nutritional needs of the elderly. In addition to responsibility for kitchen operations, most managers are required to conduct periodic visits with each patient to ensure that each resident’s specific needs are met. The person in this supervisory position may also conduct periodic on-the-job training sessions for other nursing home staff, as well as training the dietary department on updates to food service regulations.
Diet managers in schools are often required to follow the school system’s guidelines for the grade levels they serve. Managers are usually responsible for hiring, training, scheduling, and continuing education of personnel. Typically, the diet manager is directly responsible for each school’s food budget. It is usually this person’s responsibility to plan and organize food production, serve the food, and clean up after each meal served in the school cafeteria.
Most college campuses have one or more cafeterias, depending on the size of student enrollment. Diet manager job requirements typically vary by college governing body. He or she is still likely to be responsible for the budget; food and non-food purchases; hiring, training and scheduling staff; and anything else related to the cafeteria.
Additional responsibilities may be required in any of the diet manager positions. Some of these might include special food for celebrations, food service for meetings, or public relations in the community. Other places that may hire food service or food service managers are cafeteria companies, theme parks, and charities.
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