ADAPTATION for A Passion
Rolling with the Punches
to move those items first. Create a menu that would cover all three scenarios: in person, virtual and hybrid. After you have taken inventory of your food, work on moving the largest inventory first. Move all the owned inventory first, even if that means you offer multiple entrée choices in meal kits, on lunch trays and at kiosks. Participation (albeit altered during a pandemic) will increase with a variety of foods offered to appeal to a wider audience. When approached with distribution inventory concerns, negotiate what works for your school system. Use the items that work well and show good faith that you are willing to take inventory; this is a mutually beneficial exchange. The more school systems that work together to reduce inventory at distribution, the sooner distribution will bring in items on your bid. Many school systems are looking to reduce expenses. Commodity utilization will be top priority for most. School systems will use the pounds carried over from this past year as well as pounds diverted for this current year. Many states have extra pounds in their accounts due to sweeps and canceled orders. Work with your state agency to make the most of your commodity dollars; this will help to balance places where you want to spend commercial dollars. For example, the menu planned may reflect three entrée choices. One choice may be commodity beef, the next commodity chicken and the last choice may be a commercial product that does not use
commodities. Also consider the commodity fruits and vegetables that your state agency selects. There are a variety of frozen and canned options that require very little labor to produce and students find acceptable. A balanced menu in this pandemic is more than ensuring nutritional compliance and hosting themed days to boost participation.Menus lookmuch different than that of years past. School systems are lean and looking at every penny and every penny does count! A balanced menu in this climate includes a menu that
2020’s Pandemic: Balancing Menus
The logical approach to balance your menu is to understand your operation in real time. “
has been costed out; analyzed down to every penny. Items that were standard offerings with a meal may even be reconsidered; for example, offering pickles, onions, lettuce and tomato for a cheeseburger. This may be reduced to a ketchup packet, temporarily until fund balances are not as dire and there is increased student participation. Whichever direction your meal
Asian Food Solutions Della M. Collins, SNS
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” Albert Einstein These types of questions had multiple answers and presented an equal amount of confusion about how to proceed.
That’s a powerful statement. A statement that we can apply to our industry across the board. From directors, cafeteria managers and line staff to industry members and distribution partners; we all have changed. Change is not bad. Change proves that you shifted your mindset and adapted. This pandemic has taught the food service industry that change is unpredictable; a sign that we are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. Last March, distributors had full warehouses, school systems had full freezers and America was not prepared for the chaos which followed. Thankfully, the United States Department of Agriculture understood the delicate position Child Nutrition Departments across the Nation faced. Waivers for mealtimes, non-congregate feeding, meal patterns, etc. allowed directors to streamline their pandemic meal systems. One consistent theme across the nation was the food sitting in freezers and at distributors. As school systems worked to come up with solutions, one theme was constant. Finances. How do you continue to pay for food, labor and expenses if your revenue from school meals and a la carte was down nearly 60-90%? What if you have a fixed labor cost and cannot afford individually packaged meals? What do you do with the freezer full of food?
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Balancingmenus is just like balancing change. Menu planners across the nation rose to the challenge. Schools that had fixed labor costs decided to utilize socially distant workstations and have staff prep multiple day meal kits. They worked with their local dairy to order larger containers of milk. They worked with their produce distributors and farmers to provide larger units of fruits and vegetables. Some school systems that did not have fixed labor costs chose a different model; outsourcing to a meal service company. Whichever model you chose, school systems made it work. Fast forward to September of 2020. Public schools across the nation are struggling with which model is most appropriate for their community.Menuplanners again were faced with the challenge of change and adapting to hybrid, all virtual and in-person sessions. Perhaps all three occurring simultaneously in one school system. What is the right choice for school systems? How do you respond? Thankfully, the USDA has approved waivers through the end of June 2021. So, what is next? The logical approach to balance your menu is to understand your operation in real time. If you still have “last year’s” food in the freezer, develop a plan
service moves towards; remember that inventory reduction, costed menus and commodity utilization will assist with expenses. Remember to reach out and connect via social media. Our industryshares awealthof passion,knowledgeand skillsets on many school nutrition pages. Published menus, recipe ideas and meal delivery models are just a snapshot of the information shared on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. And, the “phone a friend” option is still alive and well! We all miss connecting with one another. Why not use menu planning as a reason to reach out to a peer?
Della M. Collins, SNS is a Regional Account Manager for Asian Food Solutions & Comida Vida that resides in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. Her passion for Culinary Arts and School Nutrition allow her to bring innovative solutions to the K-12 segment. Working eleven years with a large school system in Maryland allowed her to gain knowledge, vision and harness ability to create culinary training programs as well as write menus for all facets of child nutrition. Della prides herself on being organized; forward thinking while considering how food and products will be received by students who participate in the meal programs. She looks to modern food trends for intuitive menu placement and considerations. Additionally, she stays relevant with packaging and environmental trends; which work symbiotically with the K-12 population. She currently is on the Board of Directors for the Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation and works alongside the ProStart Culinary Program as a mentor, judge, curriculum advisor and educational facilitator.
DellaM. Collins SNS
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