THE JOB

Cobbossee is a 4-week, 2-session sleepaway summer camp in Maine. The dates for this position run from June 16th to August 15th, 2020. For more on what summer camping actually is, see the very bottom of this document!

Cobbossee is looking for a few talented and motivated Culinary students/Kitchen Assistants for the summer of 2020. The Dining Hall is one of the most important parts of our Camp. Our outstanding chef Louis has run the kitchen, producing famously delicious food for the past 33 years at Cobbossee. You can learn a lot from this guy. You’ll join a team with a proud heritage of producing three delicious meals for the 340 people at camp each day over the intense two months of summer. Louis is the rarest of breeds: he runs a “scratch kitchen” meaning most if not all of the meals are not pre-prepared in any way. This means you will learn how to execute scratch food on a large scale. No small thing.

You will be part of a diverse team of fourteen in the kitchen, working a 6-day shift pattern, receiving an hourly minimum wage and overtime on the 6th day. Summer earnings could approach 4500 plus room, board, and travel.

The roles in this team encompass everything that it takes to run a safe kitchen, these jobs range from kitchen set up, meal distribution, food preparation, dining room set up, clean up and everything associated with a professional kitchen and Dining Hall space. Your roles will be diverse and varied throughout your daily schedule. It goes without saying your personal strengths determine your level of responsibility and autonomy in the Kitchen team. Best of all you get to interact with the entire community of Cobbossee and prepare them delicious food which keeps us running.

It must be said that, in Louis’ kitchen, the staff work hard and everyone chips in - dishes, pots, prep, mopping, and garbage, as well as prep, knife skills, and cooking. This is NOT a classic kitchen hierarchy where ego and seniority decide who might clean a pot on a given day. If you are too good to do the scrub work from time to time or even a lot of the time, look elsewhere.

THE BENEFITS

You don’t want to stay at home all summer do you? Ever wanted to see New England? Well, in addition to your minimum wage salary ($12 in Maine), Cobbossee provides bed & board all summer. That’s right. Rent-free in the pandemic summer gaining professional experience, personal growth and a bunch of great friends from all over the world.

You won’t spend any of your own money all summer on living expenses (the food is famously good at Cobbossee. You’re going to see and be a part of this first hand). You will also live apart from our boys, unlike our Counselor staff, living in same-sex bunks that allow you distance and quiet from the bustle of camp.

We want you to be a part of our community. That means in your free mornings or afternoons getting out onto our fields and courts to engage in our activities alongside our campers. The Waterfront, Sport and Adventure activities at Cobbossee are available for you alongside the campers, come try and play on everything we provide for the campers.

Further, days off and nights out are spent with other adventurous folks like you who came to play. Our counselors make lifelong friends at Cobbossee. Many return year-to-year. The strength of Cobbossee comes from it’s great, personable staff. Famously, Cobbossee’s kitchen and support staff are an integrated, full-membership part of our community, not a second-class set apart from all the fun and magic.

OTHER POSSIBLE BENEFITS

We can configure your employment this summer as job training, an internship, or just a really great summer job. Our director, Josh Holland, is a former academic and can make sure your experience is converted into internship credit if that’s what you want. If you are in a job specific major, this experience can be one of the best paid internships you can find.

THE BOTTOM LINE

“Summer jobs” are often seen as throwaway jobs. Not here. This job is going to challenge you. You are going to give of yourself, have an absolute blast, develop strong friendships with your peers, and really make a difference in young people’s lives. When you step outside of your comfort zone and join us on this adventure you will grow as a person, develop job specific skills and you’re going to develop real relationships doing it alongside fellow staff and with our wonderful campers. You should come work at Cobbossee because we are one of the best. We develop counselors like we develop campers. You will change for the better. It will truly be the summer of your life.

For anyone not familiar with the huge world of sleepaway camps in New England, it works as follows: All over the northeast each summer, families send their boys and girls up to New England to spend anywhere from a couple weeks to the entire summer at a sleepaway camp. Sometimes people who are not from the east coast see this as a strange choice, maybe even a mean choice! “Don’t they like their kids?” the question goes. Of course they do. They love their children and it’s hard for them to be away from them for the time they are at camp. But parents sacrifice time with their kids in the summer because summer camp is really good for young children. Camp (especially longer-term camps of four-to-eight weeks) teaches children independence, self-reliance, and confidence through the teaching of new skills, improving at sports, and living away from home. It isn’t always easy. But it is worth it! Crucial to this process are you, the counselor. You become like a family member to the campers in your cabin. In fact, you will find yourself developing really fast yourself, just so you can be the best counselor and instructor possible for your kids! It is rewarding, challenging, and transformative work to care for campers.

We hire for personality and work ethic, we train you on all kitchen relevant skills and best practices. No qualifications necessary Kitchen Experience

Camp Cobbossee is Maine's premier 4 week sports and adventure camp for boys. We hire college age athletes to counsel and coach our boys aging 8-16. Competitive salary, bonus, travel, COVID SAFE Operation, Bed & Board all summer and tons of fun!!!