Salad bars<\/a>, breakfast bars, potato bars, taco bars and \u00e0 la carte are not new. But many foodservice directors struggle with keeping them simple enough to fit their operation and attractive enough to increase participation.<\/p>\nAt a suburban Chicago high school, Tina Mehta created quick-serve salads at each of her four serving lines. She purchased countertop Cambro units into which large, reusable ice-pack slabs could fit under the serving pans. The units cost about $500 each, she says, and the ice slabs spared the expense of buying an ice maker. Each night, she places the slabs in the freezer. The next day, they are frozen solid and hold temperature for six hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had Health Department checkups every six months, and they\u2019ve never had a problem holding temps for the six half-size hotel pans in each Cambro unit,\u201d says Mehta, Foodservice Director at Lemont Township High School District 210.<\/p>\n
The salad offering has been such a success, her $2,000 initial investment has resulted in about $70,000 more in sales. Mehta also has added a hot station, a cold station and a deli station since the initial salad bars. The popularity of the deli station\u2014up from 35 meals to 125 meals over six months\u2014has justified adding an employee for three hours a day at that station.<\/p>\n
Be prepared to make changes<\/h3>\n
Starting simple is the recipe recommended by Austin Dacci, Foodservice Director at Harrison County Schools in Kentucky. He urges kitchen managers to observe quick-serve at other schools before implementing it in your own cafeteria. Once the decision has been made, he stresses patience.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t give up after the first week, because there might be a lot of waste or people might be abusing it,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s always some adjustment to your market.\u201d<\/p>\n
One way he addressed waste was to start his salad bar with boxed lettuce. Each container holds a romaine blend and enough hard-boiled egg to meet the NSLP protein requirement. That way, each container counts as a reimbursable meal as long as students select a roll and a beverage. <\/p>\n
The students also can select from a variety of toppings: whole-grain pasta, vegetables, fruits and even proteins such as popcorn chicken, fajita-style chicken, diced turkey, diced ham and cheese. <\/p>\n
For students who don\u2019t choose salads, there\u2019s a companion yogurt bar. Each package contains yogurt and enough granola that each box is a reimbursable meal. The fruits and other toppings are treated like condiments that encourage participation by offering variety.<\/p>\n
The quick-serve line has bolstered participation by as much as 2 percent a day in the 850-student high school, Dacci says. \u201cWe\u2019re making a little bit of money from the students, but it has greatly increased our teacher and staff participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minimize waste, maximize safety <\/h3>\n
At Noblesville Schools in Indiana, Assistant Nutrition and Foodservice Director Erin Brattain says one of the keys to success of her salad bar is eye appeal. Her quick-serve offering features lots of bright colors. \u201cIt looks very much like what you might see at a college level.\u201d <\/p>\n
Noblesville also packages lettuce in a container that students can take and top with other components. If students only top it with cheese and\/or meat (plus the beverage component) it counts as a reimbursable meal. One of her challenges is maintaining a fresh appearance while also controlling food safety and preventing waste throughout four daily lunch periods.<\/p>\n
Because she uses data that shows average salad sales, her team preps only about 20 extra lettuce containers daily. It\u2019s harder to control waste with the salad toppings. By the time the fourth lunch period arrives, she doesn\u2019t want students to be discouraged from choosing salads when only the dregs of cheese, meat or pepper bins remain. To limit waste, her staff adds enough of ingredients such as shredded cheese to provide a fresh appearance. That eliminates using an entire new container and creating waste. For safety, she puts fresh tongs in before the start of each lunch period.<\/p>\n
The salad bar, she admits, is not a big moneymaker because students can load up on toppings. Instead, the salads are an attraction that brings students to the line where they might pick up a $2 drink or a slice of pizza to go with their salad. <\/p>\n
The quick-serve model also is used at breakfast. Noblesville\u2019s Brattain offers a hot entr\u00e9e like breakfast sandwiches and other pre-wrapped options like granola bars that students can take and eat as they walk to their lockers. \u201cWe do a lot of grab-and-go in the mornings\u2014we have kids come through and just buy two or three bottles of water to drink throughout the day,\u201d she says. \u201cWe purposely price our beverages a little cheaper than the vending machines.\u201d <\/p>\n
Think beyond the salad bar<\/h3>\n
At Lincoln Park Middle School south of Detroit, Foodservice Director Mark Rodriguez used the construction of a new kitchen as his opportunity to implement four quick-serve lines. The result was a huge success. <\/p>\n
Where he used to have food brought in from a satellite kitchen, he now has lines for pizza, burgers, deli and salad\/parfait lunches. Participation went from 650 meals a day to more than 800. <\/p>\n
The pizza line includes three choices daily\u2014cheese only, cheese and pepperoni and a daily special. The burger line serves beef patties as well as chicken sandwiches. The deli line is his version of a Subway sandwich shop, with a variety of ingredients that can be made into sandwiches and wraps. <\/p>\n
The salad\/parfait line was a happy afterthought, built with material that remained after the construction. The line also offers premade, wrapped sandwiches, a quick-serve line for those who don\u2019t want to wait if the other lines are long. He serves 65 salads a day. And, since every food item is packaged and date-stamped, he is able to keep it on the line for two days to prevent waste and make sure he always has enough for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never want to run out,\u201d Rodriguez says. \u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of telling kids, \u2018Sorry, that\u2019s it.\u2019 They are our customer and we have to do our best to accommodate what they are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quick-serve helps him, and other schools, achieve that objective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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