Are You Ready for Some New School Foodservice Spring Cleaning Ideas?
We are only a few months away from the beginning of prom season. Hard as that is to believe, for the school foodservice department this sparks attention to spring cleaning. You might be wondering what prom season and other social events have to do with school foodservice, but in my experience it almost always involves decreased participation and moves focus on being a part of springtime social events.
n the past, I conducted several focus groups to see what ideas we could entertain to offset this normal spring transition. Here are some of the top reasons from that focus group along with mine:
Students are saving money to purchase prom tickets, attire, meals, and money to have fun with.
The menu has the same menu options as the previous 4 months.
Vendors are not visiting as much because school districts are not going to bring anything in this late in the year.
It is time to clean out the freezers so we are going to have a lot of manager’s specials.
Most of these items are fixable. I know there is no bigger challenge than trying to avoid occurrences like cleaning out the freezers but there are ways to make these meals more palatable. One is to make certain that the product looks superb when it is displayed on the line. Try making a few adjustments to the recipe so it has a ‘new’ menu item feeling for students.
Work with the prom committee and see if they will donate a pair of tickets you can raffle off during a special event or two you can hold in early spring. Get ideas from students as to what would encourage them to participate.
Each district is different, so try to conduct focus groups and get the students involved in the menu tastings at school. This will not only help you move out product, but makes the students feel a part of the process. You will not capture every student but it will minimize the decrease in participation, if any.
Kern Halls, School Foodservice Consultant and Chief Innovator of Ingenious Culinary Concepts, turns empty dining halls into gold mines of student activity! By seeking out and combining just the right “ingredients” to accomplish what many call impossible: Halls gets students to “want” to dine in your cafeterias!
For his FREE report, outlining Marketing Tips to help you generate additional revenue TODAY, a $197 value, please visit http://www.ingeniouscc.com!
