The Variety Equation: Determing What Works for Your School District Continued from page 30
Executive Update
1. What does your student population want? Generally the older the students, the more variety they prefer. High school students want to choose from several options. On the other hand, preschool- ers are too young to select from multiple items, so one daily choice is best. Could this also be true for special education programs? 2. What is unique about your school community? In my community, where many families are vegetarian, I provide at least one vegetarian option daily. Some districts may need to offer alternatives when they are serving pork. In some loca- tions, rice may be served with every meal. 3. Do you serve students who have special dietary needs? If you’re receiv- ing several requests for special diets, you may have to offer a thoughtfully planned daily selection to serve those students effectively. For example, you may want to include a dairy free item every day, ensur- ing inclusivity and proper nutrition for all. 4. What service methods or serving loca- tions do you use? In my district, we find ourselves serving meals at sites with no equipment or ones with no designated place for serving meals. For instance, if you have to serve at a site that can only accommodate cold meals, ensure some variety by offering a chef salad and a sandwich, with different fruit selections. My district has sometimes expanded the number of classrooms and added more students, yet hasn’t increased the cafe- teria capacity. In a case such as this, your only option is to limit choices so you can serve your students promptly.
5. How much storage space do you have? Adding several new items is an inviting prospect. Still, if you don’t have storage space for everything you need, you could end up wasting food. If you’re working with a four-week menu cycle, and find you have unused bags of taco meat on Day Two, that means you’ll have to store them until your cycle begins again. Do you have that space available? This is where good planning and smart menu design come in. 6. What are the pros and cons of differ- ent menu cycle lengths? A longer menu cycle is better if you’re limited to offering only one selection per day. Four weeks is a good place to start. However, you can offer your older students 15 to 20 choices each day. In that case, you’re safe to serve the same items all the time, and let students create their own variety through their daily selections. Variety can come in other forms, too. You can take a standard menu item, like a sand- wich, and switch out traditional ingredi- ents in favor of ethnic versions. Technomic has found that fast-casual restaurants are also experiencing great success with their “build-your-own” concepts. People enjoy choosing from various options
to create their salads, tacos, or bowls.
It’s hard to know how
much variety is just right. But if you analyze your situation and answer some vital questions, you may come up with your magic number.
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