Youth Program Assistant (Tmp) Comp/Admin

General Description:

Youth need nutritious food to grow, learn and thrive.1 in 4 children are at risk of hunger in Cook County. Hunger affects a child’s academic performance, increases their health concerns and can cause developmental issues. When children and teens don’t have to worry about food, they have the chance to achieve their dreams

The Food Depository partners with schools and community organizations all year to meet young people where they live, learn and play and to ensure they have the healthy food they need and deserve The Food Depository serves youth through ~20 Healthy Student Market school-based sites, ~50 after-school meal sites (CACFP) serving ~240,000 meals annually, and ~120 summer meal sites (SFSP) serving ~140,000 meals annually.

Our Youth Program Assistant (Temporary) – Admin and Compliance will work both in the Food Depository office providing administrative support to the summer meals program and at times in the community providing the administrative, technical and outreach support to our partner sites. This position is essential to ensuring children throughout Cook County have access to nutritious meals while school is not in session.

This position will be 30 to 40 hours a week and start as soon as possible in May 2026 through August 21, 2026.

Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions:

• Reconcile reported meal counts against the program’s participant/meal-count database and flag discrepancies to program leadership and notify partners of updated quantities and effective dates.


• Perform daily quality control on compliance visits and review reports, ensuring forms are complete, accurate, and properly signed before they are finalized.


• Maintain organized, audit-ready program records by printing required documentation and filing completed reports in the appropriate shared electronic folders


• Travel throughout Cook County to conduct compliance visits, ensuring all program sites are in good standing with the Food Depository, ISBE and USDA’s food service standards.


• Provides administrative and general assistance to Youth Program Specialist.


• Provides technical assistance and in-person coaching for program sites to support overall program growth and development.


• Complete and maintain accurate documentation of site visits, providing feedback to the Youth Program Specialist as needed regarding trends and needs of site partners.


• Works to promote summer meals through community outreach efforts.


• Other responsibilities as assigned.