Food Service Worker

Food Service Worker

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Tucson, Arizona

Salary Range: $21.16 - $24.64 Per Hour

Job Summary: This Food Service Worker position is located within the Nutrition & Food Service at the VA Medical Center in The Southern Arizona Health Care System, The incumbent provides support to food service operations provided to Veterans, patients, staff and guests of Medical Center.

Major Duties:

• This position independently performs duties that require proficiency in special procedures and broad knowledge of service operations, such as food and beverage preparation, modified diets, computer proficiency, dishwashing, dry and refrigerated storage, and safety and sanitation. Major duties and responsibilities include (but are not limited to): Sets up and breaks down assigned station with the correct supplies and food items; Portions food items into standard serving sizes using the proper utensils and specified dishware; Decides what food items to serve for the most common diets when the diet card or tray ticket identifies only the kind of diet called for; Provides patients with basic information about modified diets and the nutrition services that are available; Identifies obvious discrepancies between the prescribed diets and the food items designated by the menu; Follows directions in assembling, measuring, weighing, or mixing ingredients for basic formulas and supplemental feedings following standardized recipes and using sanitary techniques; Delivers meal trays to the patients' bedsides; reporting the patients' comments and complaints to the supervisor or dietitian; Provides assistance to cooks in the food preparation area including assembling, labeling and arranging completed recipe items in preparation for use by cooks; Prepares fresh fruit/cold salads/dressings/sandwich fillings and cold sandwiches and simple cold desserts along with individual and bulk nourishments and supplement foods and beverages for patients; Makes final check of diet trays assembled by lower grade workers for completeness, correct food temperatures; Works in one or more functional areas of the kitchen such as food preparation, dish and pot washing, dry and refrigerated storage and receiving, and the serving line; Performs heavy-duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service and related areas; Performing other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full Time; Monday - Sunday, with varying shifts, 5:00 AM - 8:00 PM Compressed/Flexible: This position is not approved for compressed/flexible. Telework: This position not be authorized for telework. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Food Service Worker/PD99836S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/10/2026. 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: You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Dexterity and Safety Interpret Instructions, Specifications (other than blueprint reading) Materials Technical Practices Use and Maintain Tools and Equipment Without more than normal supervision Work Practices 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: Performs some work requiring moderate physical effort. Subject to continuous standing, walking, frequent stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, and bending. Frequently required to perform heavy work, such as scouring and scrubbing large-size cooking utensils, pushing heavy carts and trucks that are unloading, storing, and delivering supplies. This work may require climbing on ladders and the use powered cleaning equipment. Additionally, it may require frequently lifting, or moving items up to 40 pounds; or pushing or pulling objects that require excreting up to 40 pounds of pressure to overcome the inertia to begin moving. With an assistive device, employee may be required to maneuver and push pallets and carts. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

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 03/10/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12900793. 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. 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 for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. 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/. 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.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-10