ISNA COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING RESEARCH COMMITTEE
Capturing Student Feedback
BY AMANDA LAMBRECHTS, MS, RD ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF CHILD NUTRITION PERRY TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS
When it comes to planning a school nutrition menu, the tastes and preferences of your student population are some of the most important factors to consider. As you know, our food only provides good nutrition if the kids actually eat it. Gathering student feedback can ensure that you are nourishing young minds and not the garbage cans lining your cafeterias. Here are three ways you can gather feedback from your customers — the students.
Sampling food products with students is one of the best ways to gather feedback on the spot. There are a couple of ways you can approach a student sampling. First, you can order special items and serve them in small cups with your already scheduled menu items on the serving line. This is a simple way to let the kids try a small taste of a potential new item. A second option is to invite a vendor to your school to serve samples in the cafeteria. This helps build relationships with industry representatives while also taking some of the burden off of your kitchen staff. Additionally, since the brokers are the experts on the products, they can help provide students with a more detailed background on the products you are testing. A third option is to switch up your menu and trial the product as a special menu item for the day. Instead of making samples in addition to your scheduled menu items, replacing them with the sample allows students to try a full portion of the Student Samplings
food products. Substituting a menu item with your sample also allows for a shorter-staffed kitchen to sample foods without creating additional work outside of the regular menued food. Once you have selected how you will be distributing the samples, you will need to determine how you will collect data. A simple way to gather feedback is by designating one trash can near the sampling as a “like” bin and another as a “dislike” bin. At the end of your meal service, you can visually see how the food was received by looking at each trash can’s consistency. If you want more detailed feedback from older students, you can also invite students to participate in a brief survey. If cell phones are allowed at the school, you can create fliers with QR codes for students to scan immediately. A free and easy way to make surveys is by using Google Forms which can populate results into a spreadsheet.
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