What is Meal Service?
A Meal Service is a service provided by a company or an organization in which food is provided to a group of people. Homeless shelters provide a meal service, for example, but so do many education facilities, like high schools. Some companies provide their employees with meal service, though unlike for some of the other kinds of meal service, employees must pay for this food out of their own pocket.
How is Meal Service used?
Zippia reviewed thousands of resumes to understand how meal service is used in different jobs. Explore the list of common job responsibilities related to meal service below:
- Operate cash register during meal service.
- Prepared, maintained and distributed as necessary, bar-coded identification cards for students meal service.
- Directed operations for patient meal service, full service cafeteria, and catering for a 200 bed acute care hospital
- Direct supervision of meal service to skilled nursing, assisted living and dementia units.
- Set up Dining Room for the next meal service.
- Managed food service employees during meal service.
Are Meal Service skills in demand?
Yes, meal service skills are in demand today. Currently, 1,623 job openings list meal service skills as a requirement. The job descriptions that most frequently include meal service skills are child nutrition manager, dietary aide, serving, and cook/dietary aide.
How hard is it to learn Meal Service?
Based on the average complexity level of the jobs that use meal service the most: child nutrition manager, dietary aide, serving, and cook/dietary aide. The complexity level of these jobs is basic.
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What jobs can you get with Meal Service skills?
You can get a job as a child nutrition manager, dietary aide, serving, and cook/dietary aide with meal service skills. After analyzing resumes and job postings, we identified these as the most common job titles for candidates with meal service skills.
Child Nutrition Manager
- Meal Service
- Child Nutrition
- Kitchen Equipment
- Cleanliness
- Culinary
- Food Handling
Dietary Aide, Serving
- Meal Service
- Culinary
- Meal Preparation
- Fine Dining
- Food Handling
- Patients
Cook/Dietary Aide
Job description:
A cook/dietary aide is an individual who works along with the dietary managers, cooks, and dieticians. Dietary aides prepare meals, beverages, and snacks. They set up tables or dining areas with proper order and cleanliness. They serve meals and make sure that the hygiene and safety protocols for food are followed all the time. The skills significant for this job include attention to detail, strong communication skills, excellent customer service, and knowledge in food preparation and its safety protocols.
- Meal Service
- Food Handling
- Patients
- Kitchen Equipment
- Food Service
- Diet Orders
Culinary Assistant
- Culinary
- Meal Service
- Kitchen Equipment
- Food Handling
- Customer Service
- Compassion
Dining Car Server
- Exceptional Dining
- Fine Dining
- Meal Service
- Genuine Hospitality
- Customer Service
- Bus Tables
Dietary Supervisor
- Food Service
- Patients
- Tray Line
- Meal Service
- Kitchen Equipment
- Food Safety
Dietary Cook
Job description:
A dietary cook specializes in cooking and preparing healthy meals for clients or organizations. It is their duty to follow nutritional plans and guidelines, adhere to portion and quality standards, supervise kitchen staff, and participate in delivering food to rooms or offices. They also monitor the inventory of supplies, maintain the cleanliness of different areas, and keep dishes sanitized at all times. Moreover, a dietary cook must coordinate and maintain an open communication line with fellow kitchen workers to ensure a safe and efficient workflow.
- Patients
- Food Handling
- Food Service
- Kitchen Equipment
- Meal Service
- Rehabilitation
Food Service Technician
Job description:
A food technician monitors what goes in and out of a kitchen. The role entails ensuring that whatever food leaves the kitchen meets the company's standard. The role also requires them to work closely with the food service team to ensure adequate preparation, cleaning, and sanitizing of cooking equipment and work area. Food technicians are employed at hotels, restaurants, hospitals, or schools.
- Patients
- Tray Line
- Food Handling
- Kitchen Equipment
- Meal Service
- Food Carts
Nutrition Aide
Job description:
Nutrition Aides prepare and deliver meals for residents in nursing homes or patients in medical clinics or hospitals. These professionals spend half of their time with patients and the remaining half in the kitchen - where they complete trash disposal and ware washing and deliver nourishment and food to the required facility locations. Other duties performed by nutrition aides include preparing meals as directed and dating and labeling food items as per the policy and procedures.
- Patients
- Food Service
- Tray Line
- Meal Service
- Basic Math
- Customer Service
How much can you earn with Meal Service skills?
You can earn up to $38,248 a year with meal service skills if you become a child nutrition manager, the highest-paying job that requires meal service skills. Dietary aides, serving can earn the second-highest salary among jobs that use Python, $27,660 a year.
Job Title![]() ![]() | Average Salary![]() ![]() | Hourly Rate![]() ![]() |
---|---|---|
Child Nutrition Manager | $38,248 | $18 |
Dietary Aide, Serving | $27,660 | $13 |
Cook/Dietary Aide | $27,490 | $13 |
Culinary Assistant | $33,149 | $16 |
Dining Car Server | $26,623 | $13 |
Companies using Meal Service in 2025
The top companies that look for employees with meal service skills are Aramark, Elior North America, and PruittHealth. In the millions of job postings we reviewed, these companies mention meal service skills most frequently.
Rank![]() ![]() | Company![]() ![]() | % Of All Skills![]() ![]() | Job Openings![]() ![]() |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Aramark | 19% | 16,325 |
2 | Elior North America | 17% | 672 |
3 | PruittHealth | 8% | 2,890 |
4 | Department Of Military Affairs | 8% | 2,753 |
5 | Compass Group USA | 7% | 27,127 |
Departments using Meal Service
Department![]() ![]() | Average Salary![]() ![]() |
---|---|
Healthcare | $58,495 |