Department of Veterans Affairs

Food Service Worker

Albuquerque, New Mexico Full time

Food Service Worker

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Albuquerque, New Mexico

Salary Range: $18.6 - $21.71 Per Hour

Job Summary: The NMVA Healthcare Network is recruiting for a Food Service Worker assigned to the Nutrition and Food Services. The primary purpose for this position is to support the food service operations provided to Veterans. Work is performed in one or more functional areas such as food preparation, dish and pot washing, dry and refrigerated storage and receiving, and the serving area. DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

Major Duties:

  • Major duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to: Set up and break down assigned station with the correct supplies and food items. Portion food items into standard serving sizes using the proper utensils and specified dishware. Select and place correct items on patient trays. Decide what food items to serve for the most common diets. Identify obvious discrepancies between the prescribed diets and the food items designated by the menu. Set up dining room tables for service, place food and beverages on tables, and replenish items as necessary. Deliver meal trays to the patients' bedsides; reporting the patients' comments and complaints to the supervisor or dietitian. Provide assistance to cooks in the food preparation area, such as weigh, measure and assemble ingredients according to standardized recipes. Prepare fresh fruit/cold salads/dressings/sandwich fillings and cold sandwiches and simple cold desserts. Read and interpret regular or modified menus, individual diet cards, tray tickets or patient selections. Perform heavy-duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service and related areas. Perform other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Shifts are variable to include weekends and holiday. Tours of duty may include the following: 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM OR 11:00 AM to 7:30 PM (Tour will be determined by supervisor based on organizational needs). Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Not authorized. Position Description Title/PD#: Food Service Worker/PD99920S Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/17/2025. EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualification Standards. SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements: Ability to Do the Work of the Position without More Than Normal Supervision Ability to Interpret Instructions, Specifications, etc. (Other Than Blueprint Reading) Ability to Use and Maintain Tools and Equipment Dexterity and Safety Knowledge of Materials Technical Practices (Theoretical, Precise, Artistic) Work Practices (Including Keeping Things Neat, Clean, and in Order) Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements/Working Conditions: Food Service Workers perform work requiring light to moderate physical effort. May be required to perform heavy work, such as scouring and scrubbing large size cooking utensils and pushing heavy carts and trucks in unloading, storing, and delivering supplies. Are subject to continuous standing and walking, and frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. May be required to work on ladders and use powered cleaning equipment. Frequently lift or move objects weighing up to 20 pounds unassisted and occasionally lift or move objects weighing more than 40 pounds with the assistance of others.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 11/17/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12827497. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-17