Nutrition Services Specialist

Company Description

The Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) is a private non-profit agency founded in 1988 to strengthen early childhood education across Lorain County and surrounding areas. Originating from research linking quality early childhood experiences to improved long-term social outcomes, CCRC was created to expand access to high-quality childcare for all families. As part of Ohio’s Child Care Resource and Referral Network, CCRC now serves Lorain, Erie, Huron, Sandusky, and Seneca counties, acting as a comprehensive resource for families and providers.

The organization helps families find child care, recruits and supports caregivers, offers training and startup guidance, collects data for community planning, and advocates for policies that make quality child care affordable and accessible.

The Nutrition Services Specialist is a full-time, hybrid (after 3 month training and onboarding) role based in Lorain, Ohio, with some work-from-home flexibility. This position supports early care and education programs by promoting healthy nutrition practices in childcare settings. Day-to-day responsibilities include providing guidance to childcare providers on menu planning, child nutrition standards, and compliance with relevant regulations and program guidelines.

The specialist will conduct site visits and trainings, review documentation related to nutrition services, and assist with program monitoring and reporting. The role also involves collaborating with families, caregivers, and community partners to improve access to nutritious food options and to support the overall well‑being of children in care.

• Monitor, analyze and maintain information collected and make recommendations for CACFP improvements
• Maintain systems/procedures for the CACFP program
• Verification of data accuracy
• Process child applications, menu compliance and support
• Track child attendance as it relates to food served and the monthly claims
• Develop and host on‑boarding process for new CACFP family child care home businesses
• Work with an assigned caseload of homes, ensuring that they are successful and claiming monthly
• Create and implement weekly, monthly and annual strategies to ensure compliance and program success
• Work closely with your caseload to identify and brainstorm strategies to improve program success, nutritional programming and overall business stability
• Contribute improvements in techniques affecting CACFP operations
• Create a climate in which people want to do their best. Can motivate team or caseload and make each individual feel his/her work is important
• Oversee monthly CACFP claim using custom software and report any findings to supervisor
• Train and provide ongoing technical assistance to CACFP family child care home businesses on CACFP program operations using methods that meet provider needs
• Perform CACFP caseload quality audits on a monthly basis
• Identify corrective action issues and document, monitor and follow up to ensure corrections have been made
• Monitor participating family child care home businesses onsite for compliance with federal CACFP requirements
• Assist supervisor with annual CACFP application and audit processes
• Maintain CRM database with accurate information and work to increase leads to improve recruitment efforts
• Monitor marketing/recruitment campaigns for effectiveness and reach
• Problem solves using new and innovative ideas with the goal of creating great customer experience
• Assuming other responsibilities as assigned by supervisor
• Identify innovative strategies to make 212 degrees your personal target

• Strong verbal and written communication; active listener
• Outgoing, friendly, and energetic
• Deadline driven, achieves results with little supervision
• Ability to collect and compile data, and perform data entry
• Excellent organizational skills
• Ability to work independently and as a team member
• Ability to multi-task
• Comfortable giving direction, holds others accountable, and solution oriented
• Resilient and adaptable to changes in direction
• Demonstrate the desire for continual self‑improvement

The CACFP Specialist works within our agency and department strategic goals to grow the work of CACFP in partnership with all departments of the CCRC (parent services, provider services, professional development, business services).