Operator Award Finalists Here are their stories:
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Leon County Schools Tallahassee, Florida
McHenry SD 15 McHenry, Illinois
How they got here: Involving the superintendent as a “celebrity” and inviting non-lunch eating students to the taste test What we love: Attention to detail and allowing the students to give honest feedback about the menu items In their words: We all do taste test with students, but this year Leon County took it to the next level. We launched the Superintendent’s lunch tour. For 10 weeks the Superintendent would travel to a middle school and have an intimate lunch with 8 select students along with a few teachers and/or staff members. We made sure to have students that usually did not eat with use so that we could hopefully win them over. The table would be decorated, balloons and a sign would welcome the guest, and the food was presented on elevated dishes. Dishes were presented by our district Chef who had a server helping pass out the meals so that she could explain each dish to guest in detail. While tasting the new recipes, the superintendent would discuss each dish with the guest and talk to them about other items they might want to see on the menu for next year. Overall, it was a very successful taste test tour!
How they got here: Giving students a positive foodservice experience through reward-based involvement What we love: Meal participation increases and student excitement about the program In their words: We believe that getting the students involved with the food service program is the best way to enhance participation. We recently started up our guest chef experience with the students. The students purchase a certificate from their school store with the dollars they earnfor good behavior from the teachers. The experience costs the students 100-150 dollars depending on the school and how often they give them out (this is a lot). The student spends their lunch period serving meals to their classmates, getting a tour of the kitchen, working the dish machine, and helping restock shelves. This has been very popular with the students, teachers, school officials as well as the kitchen staff. When the students are finished, the cafeteria staff signs their chef hat and they get to keep the hat, apron, and certificate to take home and have as a reminder of the experience. On the days the guest chef experience is happening not only is the student participating in the experience excited, but all of the other students are in envy of their classmate that is working behind the counter. This experience is so popular that I have had to limit the number of certificates available at the schools and meal participation continues to grow.
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