Business Manager

Title: Business Manager – The Raging Spoon, Working for Change

Compensation: $57,603.40 + comprehensive benefits

Type: Full-Time, Permanent, Unionized.

Hours of Operation: 365 days per year, Monday–Friday, 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week, with overtime provisions as per the Collective Agreement. The Business Manager participates in a rotating schedule with Lead Hands and the Kitchen Manager to share early mornings, evenings, and weekend coverage, based on operational needs, to ensure fairness for all staff.

Work Location(s): Raging Spoon Catering Company sites- located at 629 Adelaide Street West (Primary Location), 69 Fraser Avenue and 1658 Queen Street West, and headquarters at 1499 Queen Street West, with occasional offsite catering locations. Locations may vary from time to time.

About Working for Change & The Raging Spoon

Working for Change is a grassroots social justice organization that believes strongly in the wisdom, value, and skills of people with lived experience of mental health challenges, substance use, homelessness, trauma, newcomer/refugee experiences, incarceration, gender-based violence, disabilities, and other barriers to employment. The Raging Spoon is a food service social enterprise that delivers institutional meals through contracted services to homeless shelters and supportive housing providers, as well as regular catering services. The Business Manager plays a critical leadership role in ensuring the Raging Spoon is financially viable, operationally sound, and aligned with its social mission. Applicants must have lived experience as broadly defined above.

Requirements

The successful candidate will bring a combination of operational leadership, financial acumen, and values--based people management.

Experience & Skills

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in food service or hospitality management, catering operations, or institutional food service
• Demonstrated commitment to high quality food
• Demonstrated experience managing contract-based or service delivery revenue (e.g., shelters, institutions, or large clients)
• Strong working knowledge of budgets, cost controls, margins, and forecasting
• Proven ability to manage labour scheduling, supervision, and staff performance in a unionized or structured workplace
• Experience developing and maintaining systems, procedures, and documentation
• Excellent organizational, communication, and problems solving skills

People & Values

• Applied understanding of trauma-informed and anti-oppressive practices
• Experience supporting, supervising, or working alongside people with lived experience of poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use, etc.

Technical & Regulatory

• Current Food Safety Certification (or willingness to obtain immediately)
• Working knowledge of Toronto Public Health, food safety, and workplace health & safety requirements
• Comfort with Microsoft Office / spreadsheets; ability to learn internal systems

Responsibilities

Revenue Management

• Manage and oversee all primary revenue streams, including institutional meal contracts and catering services.
• Coordinate and oversee incoming service requests, contracts, and catering orders from intake through delivery
• Ensure accurate tracking of volumes, pricing, invoicing, and fulfillment for both institutional meals and catering while staying within budget and meeting revenue targets
• Maintain strong, professional relationships with partners, catering clients, and suppliers.
• Ensure that the terms of service agreements are met at a high quality
• Identify opportunities to stabilize and grow both institutional and catering revenue in alignment with organizational capacity, staffing, and mission

Operations Management

• Oversee day-to-day food service operations to ensure consistent, reliable delivery of institutional meals and catering services
• Translate contracts, menus, and production plans into daily operational schedules, standard operating procedures and workflows
• Ensure coordination between kitchen operations, staffing, purchasing, and delivery logistics
• Identify operational risks or bottlenecks and implement practical solutions
• Ensure operations align with food safety, health & safety, and organizational policies

Labour Management

• Schedule and supervise staff across all food service operations
• In collaboration with the kitchen manager, provide coaching, training, and performance management for staff, including employees with lived experience
• Foster a respectful, accountable, structured, and team-oriented work environment
• Work within collective agreements and organizational HR policies
• Coordinate staffing plans to meet service obligations while managing labour costs
• Partner with employment referral partners to ensure subsidies and support for employees flow effectively.

Cost Management

• In partnership with the Kitchen Manager, oversee ordering of food, supplies, and equipment
• Monitor food, labour, and operating costs against budget
• In partnership with Lead Hands and the Kitchen Manager, maintain inventory systems and conduct regular inventory counts
• Identify and address variances, waste, and inefficiencies

Finance

• Work with senior management to develop and manage annual budgets
• Track revenue and expenses; prepare internal financial reports as required
• Support forecasting and planning related to contracts and service levels
• Ensure accurate documentation and financial accountability for operations

Marketing & Business Development

• Maintain and update marketing and communications materials related to institutional meal and catering services, ensuring accuracy and alignment with current operations
• Coordinate and track incoming catering and service inquiries, supporting approved outreach and promotions as required

Additional Responsibilities

• Collaborate with other Working for Change managers, Directors and teams
• Other duties as assigned, consistent with the scope and responsibilities of the role

In addition to our commitment to lived experience, Working for Change remains committed to equity and strongly encourages applications from Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour, gender diverse & LGBTQ2S groups, and others from equity-deserving communities.

Interested applicants must submit a résumé and cover letter that speaks about their lived experience in general terms and the skills that make them suitable for this role.

Please apply via email with subject line “Business Manager Application” to Nicolette Felix, Director of Social Enterprise:

nicolette@workingforchange.ca

Application Deadline: February 6, 2026 at 11:59 pm

No phone calls please.