You can\u2019t manage what you don\u2019t measure. It\u2019s hard to imagine those seven words are the solution for calming the difficult-to-navigate waters of running a school foodservice program, but it\u2019s true. In fact, when it comes to tracking, measuring and controlling everything, one word sums it up nicely: benchmarking.
Benchmarking is simply a self-improvement process\u2014tracking data to measure the details of your program, whether it\u2019s USDA food allotment spending, order placing, menu creation, kitchen production, staff management, etc. And now that the school year is in session, it\u2019s the perfect time to use data you\u2019ve collected to take a look at such things as food cost per meal, labor cost per meal, non-food cost per meal, meal count per labor hour and even lining up your food allotment spending so you don\u2019t leave money on the table. Ben Gardner, Gordon Food Service Customer Intelligence and Strategy Analyst, says POS systems are equipped to provide comparisons weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, any of which can help improve efficiency.
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken with operators who have integrated end-to-end data analysis and activity reports,\u201d Gardner says. \u201cThroughout the year they are using production information to make their operation as efficient as possible by identifying strengths and weaknesses and making changes where necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no limit to the data you can examine, but you first need to know what you\u2019re paying for, says Julie Hedine, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at Pasco County Schools north of Tampa, Florida. When it comes to allotment spending, some costs are easier to track than others.
Invoices monitor orders and purchasing. The POS system collects information about how, where and when food is sold. The general budget can tell you labor costs and equipment costs. Hedine says all of these numbers are essential to establish a baseline. Once you do that, the comparisons become more manageable.
For Hedine, who oversees foodservice for a 70,000-student district and a budget approaching $39 million, her baseline is a \u201ccommon meal equivalent cost.\u201d It\u2019s based on how much it costs to serve lunch, the most popular meal served (43,000 daily). She factors in all costs\u2014food, storage, preparation, materials, labor, cleanup\u2014to determine how much the average lunch costs, and then she is able to make apples to apples comparisons.
\u201cYou can compare school-to-school\u2014if one school\u2019s costs seem high, we examine whether it\u2019s waste, overserving, portion sizes, are they following paper supply standards or do they have a theft problem,\u201d she says. \u201cWe may also have higher labor costs at one school because of higher-wage workers or absenteeism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other factors also affect common meal equivalent cost numbers. Some are revealed by looking at processes, and others are trend-based. Scratch-made food can have less food cost but more labor cost. The number of serving and payment lines affects cafeteria traffic flow and purchasing habits. None of these things can be made more efficient, Hedine says, unless you benchmark.
Looking for efficiencies requires the ability to compare. If a school district is big enough, it\u2019s possible to compare similar-sized schools. But districts of any size are able to make weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual comparisons.
\u201cThere\u2019s never a bad time to start,\u201d Hedine says. \u201cOnce you get a few weeks or months of data you have something to compare.\u201d
Once the data rolls in, it\u2019s possible to compare costs and revenue. But even these don\u2019t tell the whole story. Something else Hedine watches for are trends.
\u201cThe numbers at the beginning of the year are typically lower, and that\u2019s because a lot of kids bring sack lunches,\u201d she says. \u201cAbout a month into the year, this gets a little tiresome, so we use benchmarking and trend findings to adjust our forecasting all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
What you\u2019re counting on benchmarking to do is build a framework that guides short-term and long-term decision making directed toward financial health. Forecasting can be a big help when managing your allotment spending. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to shift from the start of the school year to placing orders for USDA food allotments in January pretty quickly,\u201d Hedine says. \u201cBy October, you should already have some benchmarking data available to help you spend your USDA allotment wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, Hedine says she knows her kitchens are capable of making mac \u2018n cheese, but the data has shown that it\u2019s more cost effective from a labor standpoint to buy a ready-made product. Plus, students know what\u2019s on the menu has a consistent flavor and texture, which keeps sales numbers up. And that\u2019s how data helps with forecasting.<\/p>\n
Cycle menus, such as the four-week cycle menu used at Pasco County, also help with forecasting and food costs because the district knows exactly what it\u2019s going to serve and when.
Maureen Pisanick, President and Chief Nutrition Officer at Pisanick Partners, points out that cycle menus help forecasting in a number of ways. Because you can plan the menu weeks in advance, you have food-buying cost controls. You also know how much staffing it takes to prepare the meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you repeat the cycle, you should have a good indicator of student food preferences, which can reduce waste and reveal where menu changes need to be made,\u201d Pisanick says.<\/p>\n
In addition to using cycle menus, Pasco County also rings up every menu item sold as students check out. \u201cIf a student comes through with a chicken sandwich, roasted broccoli, a piece of fruit and milk, we punch four buttons so we know how much of each item we sold,\u201d Hedine says. \u201cThis gives accurate numbers to our suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the information a foodservice director collects can then be used in meetings with the district business manager. Whether those meetings are weekly, monthly or at some other interval, data can help find efficiencies.<\/p>\n
At Pasco County, Hedine\u2019s finance manager has weekly business process meetings with the budgeting team, and Hedine meets monthly with the district\u2019s chief financial officer. Whether she needs to discuss the lunch program, adult meals, vending, or federal and state requirements, knowing details can move the needle toward smarter spending.<\/p>\n
She says three of the most important things she monitors are food costs, labor costs and operating revenue. When you have numbers from all three, you can make little decisions that make a big difference, such as determining whether buying chopped lettuce is a better deal than the labor and safety involved in chopping it yourself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t go into a meeting and make a request without data to back me up,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re very data driven, and it makes a huge difference.\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With shrinking budgets, knowing how to collect and analyze data can really add up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":4436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-k12-education","category-running-your-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n