Engage with your eaters. Utilize their input to help you plan the menu. Most students love to be asked about food preferences and what changes they would like to see on the menu. Analyze your trash! You can learn a lot about what people don’t like when you take a peek into the trash bin. Maybe a new sauce, a new presentation, or
Upcycle leftovers and food scraps. Using leftover scraps that would otherwise be thrown away helps with the sustainability of your kitchen. Using not so perfect produce items into smoothies, soup stocks, sauces and roasted and baked items. For example, when bananas start to turn
a new cooking method would help elevate satisfaction of that item you think kids should like but are routinely seeing in the trash. We train cooks to use batch cooking to make what they need when they need it. No one wants soggy grilled cheese, so proper planning is key to reducing waste and saving money.
brown, freeze and use them in smoothies or banana bread. Think about that peach or apple that may be bruised and gets casted aside as the ugly fruit. Re-purpose it into the lovely swan by making it a roasted peach with whipped cream or baked apple with homemade granola crumble. Don’t throw out those scraps from the veggies you clean. Put the onion peels, carrot tops, celery tops, etc. into a container and freeze. Next time you are making soup, pull them out and make your own vegetable stock. Re- purpose stale bread or buns for use in bread pudding, French toast bake or even grind them up and make your own bread crumbs. We feel so passionate about this that our cookbook features ‘upcycled’ recipe ideas, like this egg roll-in-a-bowl recipe and video, that provide great ways to make use of those leftovers.
Implement a share table.
Use of a ‘share table’ is a win-win strategy to take some of those unopened food and drinks that you might be seeing in the garbage can and offer to other students at no
cost to them. To ensure compliance with food safety requirements, operators should discuss plans for a share table with their local health department prior to implementation. This video from StopWaste provides great guidance and shows share tables in action.
Egg Roll in-a-bowl recipe
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IGjDkbI8ysY&t=11s
Swap some meat-based entrees with plant-based options. Not only does this make consumers happy that want more plant-based options available, but these options are typically healthy, are often less expensive and
Meet the Pisanick Partners leadership team
(From left to right) Marge Robison, MPH, RDN-LDN; Sarah Carlson, MS, RD-LD; David Pisanick, Co-Founder, CFO; Maureen Pisanick, RDN- LDN Founder,
are impactful for sustainability efforts by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are increased with animal agriculture. Check out these K-12 plant-based recipes from Forward Food and make the swap!
CEO; Tina Hastings, Operations Specialist; Gina Nash, Operations Specialist (not pictured)
Pisanick Partners is a nutrition and operations based consulting firm with decades of experience in Child Nutrition. We have refined our approach through creation of cycle menus, training and development of staff, and implementing strategies that take on the task of not only attaining nutritional excellence, but also financial success in the K-12 environment. Our experience not only supports a school district in meeting all state and federal mandates for implementing the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, but also the menu creation with an eye for detail and meticulous organization. The objective is to quickly and accurately evaluate, analyze and organize a district’s nutritional program to insure compliance and easy on-going maintenance.
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