Try One Shift This Month Pick one hospitality behavior and make it an expectation. Maybe it is greeting every student at the first point of service. Maybe it is using one consistent phrase to explain meal choices. Maybe it is making eye contact. Maybe it is recognizing a staff member who consistently models the experience you want students to have. Start small. Make it visible. Coach it. Celebrate it. Then build from there. Because we are not just serving meals. We are competing for participation. And participation is one of the clearest forms of feedback students give us. When they choose the meal, come back tomorrow and trust the people serving them, they are telling us something worked. The food matters. The menu matters. The environment matters. But the people delivering the experience matter just as much. Your staff are the brand. Make sure the brand is one students want to come back to. RETHINK SCHOOL NUTRITION A Thought Leadership Series by Jennifer Martin, MBA, CAE Think Differently. Operate Differently. Grow Participation.
Those are operational expectations. When they are clear, staff can practice them, coach one another and improve. Staff Pride Shows Students can tell when staff members are proud of what they are serving. They can also tell when staff members are simply trying to get through the meal period. That does not mean every interaction needs to be over- the-top or scripted. Some of the best customer-facing employees are quiet, steady, calm and consistent. The goal is not to create a performance. The goal is to create an experience that feels respectful, organized and intentional. That starts with helping staff understand that their role is bigger than completing tasks. • They are not only cooks, cashiers, servers or dish room staff. • They are hosts. • They are guides. • They are ambassadors for the program. • They are culture builders. And every interaction either strengthens or weakens the trust students have in the school nutrition program.
Hospitality Is Not “Just Being Nice” In school nutrition, we understandably spend a lot of time training staff on the technical side of the job: food safety, meal patterns, production records, portion sizes, point-of-sale systems, cleaning procedures and compliance. All of that matters. But if we are asking staff to interact directly with hundreds of students every day, hospitality has to matter too. Hospitality is not about telling staff, “Be nicer to the kids.” That is too vague. Hospitality should be trained just like any other operational expectation. • What does a welcoming greeting sound like? • How do we explain choices quickly and clearly? • What language do we use when a student is confused? • How do we keep the line • How do we respond when a student says they do not like something? • How do we manage frustration without allowing that frustration to become the customer experience? moving without making students feel rushed?
Jennifer Martin, MBA, CAE | CEO, New York and New Jersey School Nutrition Associations Jennifer Martin, MBA, CAE, is the CEO of the New York School Nutrition Association and the New Jersey School Nutrition Association. A nationally engaged association executive with more than a decade of leadership in school nutrition, she works at the intersection of advocacy, professional development, workforce strategy, and program innovation. Her work focuses on challenging traditional thinking, strengthening the student experience, and helping school nutrition leaders approach participation, engagement, and operations with a more strategic and customer-focused mindset.
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