VOORHEESVILLE — Nearly three years after coming to the village with only an outline of an idea, Business for Good is on the cusp of opening two restaurants within months of each other. 

But first it needs workers. 

The not-for-profit helmed by village native Ed Mitzen announced this week it would be holding a five-day job fair starting Monday, March 11, at 43 South Main Street, the future home of the Blackbirds Bike Café.

The cafe is seeking full-time and part-time employees to fill roles for supervisor, barista, and chef. 

Interested candidates are advised to start the application process online at BFG.org/careers and to show up in-person, résumé  in hand, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., every day next week. 

Mitzen has in the past touted offering workers “free health care” and paying “living wages,” which definitionally means paying someone enough to “cover the costs of their family’s basic needs where they live.” But the March 8 press release from the not-for-profit organization made no mention of either. 

The upstate minimum wage is $15 per hour, or about two-thirds of what it costs a single adult with no children in the area to cover their basic needs and about one-third of what it takes for one adult with one child to do the same. 

Job postings on the Business for Good website show Blackbirds Bike Café employees can make anywhere from $15 to $18 per hour as a barista, up to $20 an hour as a cook, and as much as $23 per hour for supervising.  The once free medical coverage is now described as “competitive.”

But the press release does boast “All profits will be donated to Business for Good to fund high school sports, activities, and programs in Voorheesville,” whose location is among the top 4 percent of wealthiest ZIP codes in the 11-county, 175 mail code Capital Region, “as well as in nearby towns. “

The café’s spring launch is part of a larger Business for Good project that includes  the Blackbirds Tavern, slated for a summer opening, at 42 South Main Street.