Company Description

Drive Change is a vibrant and growing company in New York City. Drive Change believes in the world where all young people have access to opportunity and the support needed to obtain and sustain it.

Drive Change utilizes the food truck workplace to run a 1-year Fellowship for young people coming home from jail and prison so they can access opportunity and obtain preferred employment/educational options for their futures.

Jordyn Lexton founded Drive Change in 2014 after teaching on Rikers Island for three years. Bearing witness to a destructive criminal justice system; Jordyn sought to build a social enterprise that could act as a paid opportunity and an alternative educational experience for young people coming home. Drive Change was born in concept and, after recruiting a talented team to help bring it to fruition, Drive Change launched their first food truck for social justice in April 2014 and implemented a pilot Fellowship.

Drive Change’s first food truck, Snowday, won the Vendy Cup (Best Food Truck in NYC) in 2015, all food is sourced from small, local farms within 200 miles of NYC and Fellows grow an appreciation for food sustainability by experiencing the full food chain: they harvest (bi-monthly), make from scratch and sell the food.

Drive Change is a young organization with a lot of promise. Drive Change has been recognized for its creative approach to criminal justice reform and workplace learning. To become a sustainable organization, we must invest in talent: YOU!

Truck Coach Job Description

As Truck Coach you will be responsible for ensuring that the Fellows excel in their execution of the day-to-day operations of the Drive Change food truck. At Drive Change, we view food service much like a sporting match: it’s the big show. Therefore, it is your job to coach Fellows through service and empower them to perform at their utmost ability. You should be thinking – how do I curate this food truck experience to be a living classroom?

The truck has four or five distinct roles that the Fellows rotate through, each with its own set of expectation and deliverables. You will be responsible for assessing Fellows performance during food truck service and providing verbal and written feedback to Fellows. You must implement feedback in a manner that encourages Fellows to learn and grow throughout their time in the Fellowship. You will be responsible for creating a meaningful learning experience for the Fellows through strategic management of the day-to-day truck operations. You are the curator/designer of the food truck experience: your ability to transform the food truck into a learning environment that builds skill, community, and confidence is key to your success at Drive Change.

About You:

Your commitment to the understanding that every moment within the Drive Change Fellowship experience is an opportunity for learning/coaching is the most important feature of this role and your success as Truck Coach. You get the opportunity to lead our Fellows during the big game; to coach them through their inevitable challenges and empower them to excel as individuals and as a team.

Much like the Fellows journey, you should be thinking about the next food truck service as an opportunity to improve and build from lessons learned. Your belief in the potential in our Fellows and your ability to clearly communicate with the team will be crucial in their evolution throughout the Drive Change Fellowship.
– 2+ years of Direct Service work (ex. coaching, camp counselor, social worker, teacher)
– 2+ years MGMT experience
– Hospitality or Front of House experience HIGHLY encouraged
– Positive energy and enthusiasm & your ability to empower Fellows is essential
– You are a hands on person; desk-job seekers need not apply
– You have a driver’s license with a clean record – you will be the primary driver of the truck
– You seek out where improvements can be made and take initiative to implement them
– You communicate your needs and expectations clearly
– Ability to work well with others as you will be working directly with the Fellowship team and your feedback to them is crucial for Fellows’ success
– Ability to stand on your feet for at least 5+ hrs at a time (this position requires a degree of physicality/stamina)

Nice to have
– Food service experience
– Food truck experience

HOW TO APPLY

Email info@drivechangenyc.org

Questions for the Applicant (please email answers to info@drivechangenyc.org along with a Cover Letter and Resume):

• Describe a learning experience you had that had a big impact on you; what was the learning experience? Why was it impactful?
• How do you like to train your new staff members?
• What would you say is your dominant learning style? How have you used that towards your success?
• Describe an experience where you were able to help empower another person