What is a Food Manager?

The primary role of food managers is to ensure that the food served to customers is appetizing, cooked properly, and delivered on time. They oversee the activities of employees to ensure they comply with all policies and procedures. Likewise, they train employees and encourage professional and personable behavior among them. Additionally, they order supplies, inspect work areas, and deal with customer issues and complaints. As a food manager, you would be responsible for keeping inventory of available stock. Also, you will oversee the preparation, presentation, and delivery of food.

Employers are seeking candidates with at least a high school diploma or its equivalent with five years of relevant work experience. Applicants must possess attention to detail, multitasking, interpersonal, customer service, leadership, communication, teamwork, and organization skills. You must be conversant with budgeting and scheduling software. Food Managers make an average salary of $73,468 annually. The range falls between $61,398 and $87,302.

What Does a Food Manager Do

There are certain skills that many food managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.

Learn more about what a Food Manager does

How To Become a Food Manager

If you're interested in becoming a food manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 44.3% of food managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.0% of food managers have master's degrees. Even though some food managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

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Food Manager Job Description

A food manager is a trained professional in the food industry responsible for the oversight of employees within a restaurant or other food-related establishment. They must maintain proper health and safety protocols and ensure that they are being followed.

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Top Food Manager Jobs Near You

Career Path For a Food Manager

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a food manager can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as manager, progress to a title such as store manager and then eventually end up with the title store director.

Food Manager

Average Salary for a Food Manager

Food Managers in America make an average salary of $37,654 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $57,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.

Average Food Manager Salary

$37,654 Yearly

$18.10 hourly

$24,00010%

$37,000Median

$57,00090%

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What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Food Manager

The role of a food manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general food manager responsibilities:

Produce and maintain work schedules and may prepare production records direct daily activities maintains food production that ensures the safety
Oracle inventory management and accountability processes. Purchase merchandise
When manager on duty authorize and sign for refunds

There are several types of food manager, including:

Manager

Role:

Responsible for overseeing the entire operation, the manager has a lot of responsibility on his/her or her shoulders. When we say the entire operation, we mean planning, directing, and leading the organization.

Managers should expect to work a little more than a normal 40-hour week. Since they're in charge, they're expected to be available. That's why managers end up typically working 50 hours a week, sometimes you may get away with only working 45 hours, though.

The education requirements for managers vary depending on who you work for. You might be required to have a bachelor's degree, but you might also get away with an associate degree. Now, there are some management positions that require a master's degree but, again, it really all depends on where you take your management career.

Average Salary: $58,651
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Overview How To Become Jobs

Store Manager

Role:

An important job for store managers is to attract customers into their stores through new strategies. They also have sales goals that they must meet each month and can achieve those goals through training, motivating, mentoring, and giving feedback to their staff.

A store manager's goal is to make sure every customer is satisfied with the customer service they received. The saying, "every customer is right," is definitely not a factual statement, but it's a store manager's motto.

All of these responsibilities lead up to something greater. That's right, 45-50 hour work weeks. Someone has to stay late and make sure the store is perfectly ready for the next day. Typically, this won't be a high stress job, unless it's the holidays or a tax-free weekend. Did someone say Black Friday shopping? Good luck!

Average Salary: $46,950
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

General Manager

Role:

General managers are pretty important in the workplace. Employees look up to people in these positions for guidance on policies and management of daily operations. A general manager can be useful in almost every industry, that's why this is a great position if you're looking for lots of opportunity.

General Managers are generally found in business settings, but they can also work in industries like the sound recording industry. There's no limit to where you can take this position. The possibilities are truly endless.

Average Salary: $71,581
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

States With The Most Food Manager Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active food manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where food managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Food Manager Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	9,167	$42,195
2	Texas	6,743	$34,731
3	Florida	4,873	$32,099
4	Illinois	4,056	$41,700
5	North Carolina	4,011	$34,862
6	New York	3,734	$49,565
7	Pennsylvania	3,543	$40,476
8	Georgia	3,496	$34,505
9	Virginia	3,237	$40,349
10	Ohio	3,137	$36,458
11	Massachusetts	2,817	$44,596
12	Michigan	2,561	$37,787
13	Indiana	2,424	$39,876
14	Washington	2,418	$43,151
15	New Jersey	2,408	$50,554
16	Maryland	2,220	$43,294
17	Missouri	2,170	$32,695
18	Tennessee	2,114	$28,798
19	Arizona	1,862	$38,964
20	Minnesota	1,835	$35,937
21	South Carolina	1,782	$31,005
22	Colorado	1,757	$36,729
23	Wisconsin	1,736	$41,409
24	Kentucky	1,375	$33,453
25	Alabama	1,217	$38,097
26	Connecticut	1,089	$46,204
27	Utah	1,085	$33,933
28	Oregon	1,039	$43,711
29	Kansas	1,003	$29,032
30	Louisiana	964	$36,055
31	Iowa	905	$37,698
32	Oklahoma	895	$33,014
33	Arkansas	764	$31,087
34	Mississippi	596	$35,201
35	West Virginia	569	$37,552
36	New Mexico	526	$35,109
37	Idaho	493	$36,196
38	Nebraska	489	$33,737
39	Nevada	477	$42,212
40	New Hampshire	420	$49,684
41	Maine	398	$47,871
42	Delaware	373	$43,287
43	Montana	331	$31,763
44	Alaska	284	$38,659
45	Rhode Island	269	$50,692
46	North Dakota	254	$33,365
47	South Dakota	253	$30,624
48	Wyoming	236	$34,310
49	Hawaii	195	$41,279
50	Vermont	160	$44,106

Food Manager Education

Food Manager Majors

Business

28.1 %

Culinary Arts

8.7 %

Management

6.1 %

Food Manager Degrees

Bachelors

44.3 %

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.4% of food managers listed food handling on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and communication skills are important as well.

Food Handling, 13.4%

Cleanliness, 11.0%

Cash Control, 9.8%

Customer Satisfaction, 7.9%

Non, 6.4%

Other Skills, 51.5%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Food Manager Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Food Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Food Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Food Manager diversity

Food Manager Gender Distribution

Male

52%

Female

48%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among food managers, 48.1% of them are women, while 51.9% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among food managers is White, which makes up 57.4% of all food managers.

The most common foreign language among food managers is Spanish at 60.2%.

Online Courses For Food Manager That You May Like

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Best States For a Food Manager

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a food manager. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New York. Food managers make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $50,692. Whereas in New Jersey and New Hampshire, they would average $50,554 and $49,684, respectively. While food managers would only make an average of $49,565 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New Jersey

Total Food Manager Jobs: 2,408

Highest 10% Earn:

$83,000

Location Quotient:

0.95

$50,554

Avg. Salary

View 2,408 Food Manager Jobs In NJ

2. Maine

Total Food Manager Jobs: 398

Highest 10% Earn:

$75,000

Location Quotient:

0.94

$47,871

Avg. Salary

View 398 Food Manager Jobs In ME

3. Connecticut

Total Food Manager Jobs: 1,089

Highest 10% Earn:

$76,000

Location Quotient:

1.03

$46,204

Avg. Salary

View 1,089 Food Manager Jobs In CT

Full List Of Best States For Food Managers

How Do Food Managers Rate Their Jobs?

Top Food Manager Employers

Most Common Employers For Food Manager

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Panera Bread	$39,263	$18.88	14
2	Army and Air Force Exchange Service	$36,862	$17.72	29
3	Costco Wholesale	$36,267	$17.44	46
4	Hudson Group	$35,496	$17.07	32
5	Kroger	$35,193	$16.92	50
6	Smith's Food and Drug	$35,138	$16.89	28
7	Brookshire's	$34,875	$16.77	30
8	Target	$34,022	$16.36	16
9	Dollar General	$33,714	$16.21	77
10	Kum & Go	$33,603	$16.16	19

Food Manager Videos

Food Manager Training

Updated April 6, 2023

What is a Food Manager?

What Does a Food Manager Do

How To Become a Food Manager

Food Manager Job Description

Career Path For a Food Manager

Average Salary for a Food Manager

Roles and Types of Food Manager

Manager

Role:

Store Manager

Role:

General Manager

Role:

States With The Most Food Manager Jobs

Number Of Food Manager Jobs By State

Food Manager Education

Food Manager Majors

Food Manager Degrees

Top Colleges for Food Managers

1. Cornell University

2. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi

3. Boston University

4. New York University

5. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Ponce

6. University of Akron

7. SUNY College of Agriculture & Technology at Morrisville

8. SUNY College at Plattsburgh

9. University of Alaska Anchorage

10. Stanford University

Top Skills For a Food Manager

Choose From 10+ Customizable Food Manager Resume templates

Food Manager diversity

Food Manager Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Food Manager That You May Like

Best States For a Food Manager

How Do Food Managers Rate Their Jobs?

Top Food Manager Employers

Most Common Employers For Food Manager

Food Manager Videos

Food Manager Related Careers

Food Manager Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs