School lunch menu calendar template6/5/2023 “This also improves the quality of dishes, which makes our customers happier.” Labor is also minimized, as staff members become more and more adept at preparing foods when they prepare them over and over again. View More Tips on How To Reduce Food Waste Now it’s the menu that drives the operation, and waste is minimized.” “It used to be that inventory drove the operation, and that has the potential for waste. “Our schools are able to forecast their product needs very accurately based on their cycle menus,” she says. But Kane reports that her food costs actually decreased-a development she attributes in large part to the control that cycle menus allow. Kane’s cycle menu planning allowed her the flexibility to replace the latter items before they came up on the menu again.Ī number of schools reported higher food costs because of increased spending on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. That proved especially important when Kane and her staff introduced students to new healthy foods-some of which were well-received and some of which were not. And I discovered that it’s easy to make substitutions in the middle of cycles, so you can be creative in responding to customer feedback.” “But once you’ve got everything set, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every three or four or five weeks. “There is a lot of upfront work, planning your menus, gathering nutritional information, and putting everything into an accessible format,” Kane acknowledges. But I decided to give them a try-and I am so glad, because there have been so many benefits, expected and unexpected.”įirst and foremost is the time savings. “Primarily because I thought I’d be giving up creativity. “I was dead set against cycle menus for a long time,” she recalls. Kane, who oversees foodservice operations for 17 sites throughout her district, has utilized cycle menus for the past four years. Cycle menu meal planners help boost creativity and cost savings This provides structure, predictability, and documentation-all helpful assets in planning, maintaining, and validating menus that meet the new nutritional standards. When the cycle ends, it repeats again in the same order. “It makes the whole process easier, from menu planning to certification of compliance.”Ī series of menus planned for a specific period of time-four weeks for example-a cycle menu offers different meals for each day within the cycle. “Cycle menu planning is really the most effective tool an operator can use to successfully manage the changes we’re all dealing with today and in the future,” maintains Kathleen Kane, SNS, Director of Food Service Operations for Michigan City Area Schools in northwestern Indiana. And foodservice directors who employ cycle menus have an easier time complying with the updated nutritional requirements than those who don’t. In reviewing federal meal patterns for school lunch, several conclusions seem clear: Change is hard.
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