3/1/2018

All Around Olympic Meal

Scott High School Theme Meal

Melanie PalmerUK DHN SPP

Theme Meal Assignment

Market Analysis

After spending time at the office, seeing the high schools from a dietitian’s perspective, and

serving with kitchen staff, I realized there isn’t much direct communication between the staff and

the students. The students are the main consumers of school food. Therefore, in order to come up

with a menu that students like, I asked a sample of Scott High School students by handing out a

survey and talking with them. I decided to interact with the students because 1. I wanted to 2. I was

interested in what they had to say about school food and what foods they liked in general and 3. I

figured if I showed that I cared about them and their thoughts they would begin to have more

respect for the staff who make their food and who try hard make the food as good as it can be.

Interacting with the students and observing them at the lunch line helped me see why they do not

take certain food. Fear. Skepticism. Comfort.

Market survey tools

To get the demographics and number of students who are free, reduced, or full pay I used

OneSource, the software used to keep track of lunches paid and the students, and was able to get a

print out. My second way of analyzing my market was just simply observing and interacting with

them at breakfast and lunch time. However, my most important tactic was creating my survey and

getting the thoughts and opinions of a sample of high school students (76 students). All of these

strategies helped me pick a menu that the students should enjoy.

Market analysis implementation

Ever since I walked in any of the school cafeterias, and any foodservice facility before that

(St. Joe or Ronald McDonald), I made it my first priority to make sure that my customer’s needs

were getting met with a smiling face and encouraging personality. I know I am happy when other

people are happy. Therefore, everyday at Scott I not only asked students what they would like I

would also asked if they would like to try just a little bit of the vegetable that they didn’t include in

what they initially said. I would also gently prompt the students to just try something that is part of

the main meal because it wouldn’t cost them anything more. Yes, the foods were offered, but I

wanted to make sure they were given more of a chance to try new things and step out of their

comfort zone.

After the students had gotten use to seeing me in the cafeteria I decided I was ready to try

and interact with the student a little bit more. I created a survey that asked these questions (I only

included some of the questions):

If you had all the food in the world in front of you, without considering money, what would be

the foods/meals you would pick? Which foods/meals would you definitely not touch (least

favorite foods/meals).

What are some cafeteria foods that you like currently?

What are some things you could think of that would improve cafeteria food and its quality?

What foods would you like to see in the cafeteria and what foods would you like to see taken

off the menu?

Market analysis results

The results of my survey that I

created greatly helped me decide what I

should make for the Themed Meal.

Although I mainly focused on the students

since they are a majority of the consumers

and Scott High School, teachers, school

staff, and kitchen staff are other consumers

of school lunches. There are four lunches

that are 25 minutes long.

933-934 total students

347 students are eligible for free lunch

48 students are eligible for reduced pay

538 students are full pay

Results from my survey:

Of the many results, the top four foods students liked were Pizza (16), Chicken tenders (15),

Steak (12), and Spaghetti (10). Half of the people that said they liked steak also said they liked

baked potatoes. This question is not limited to one answer, so each student had multiple foods

listed that they liked.

The food that they disliked that most was by far seafood/fish. Cauliflower was the most

popular vegetable in the dislike with 6 people saying that they disliked it and then all the other

foods, which were mainly vegetables, were about even at 3-4 people per vegetable.

Student Diversity

White (831 students, 88.9%)

Two or more races (39 students, 4.2%)

Hispanic (31 students, 3.3%)

Black/African American (24 students, 2.6%)

Asian (7 students, 0.75%)

American Indian/Native Alaskan (1 student, 0.11%)

Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander (1 student, 0.11%)

Cafeteria foods that they like include Chicken (tenders), Burgers, Chicken sandwiches, Pizza,

and no cafeteria foods (some kids don’t eat lunch and just wait until they get home.

Suggestions they gave for improving cafeteria quality include foods needing more flavor,

having fresher fruit/food, giving them more food, letting the students choose, and more options

including salad options.

Of the 76 students that took the survey 20 said that they didn’t like any of the cafeteria

foods that Scott High school serves and of those 20 students, 2 wrote they packed their lunch, 8 said

that they don’t eat school food, and 10 said that they don’t like any of the school food with some

saying they just eat it to get through the day.

Special Menu and Rationale

Theme Menu Explanation and Appeal to Specific Market

I started brainstorming in the last week of January, some foods that I wanted to introduce to

the students. I thought it would be fun to choose foods with a round shape and call my meal Round

is the New Skinny. Some of the topics talked about in my Counseling classes and at professional

meetings have started to introduce the idea of healthy and every size and thought this theme could

play off this idea. I know some students had mentioned not being able to have gluten or dairy or

soy, so I wanted to try I do an allergen free menu that would still be tasty to the general high school

population. On February 9th I decided to do my Themed Meal on Thursday March 1st, which

originally was BBQ chicken day with cornbread, tater tots, side salad, and a fruit, because the foods

were similar to that day just in a spiced-up way. I thought of a quinoa and beef chili with hasselback

potatoes, red pepper rings, and grapes. I also thought of doing turkey sausage patties with

cornbread, hasselback potatoes, red pepper rings, and grapes. However, quinoa would be

expensive, I had to have a dark leafy green vegetable, and grapes were banned from the cafeteria

because high school students would throw them everywhere. I knew I wanted to keep the

hasselback potatoes because students liked baked potatoes, and this was a fun way to eat a baked

potato. I ditched the allergen free idea because it was turning into a theme about me instead of

about my consumers. One morning I was brainstorming with the Scott manager and she came up

with the idea of Salisbury steak and Caesar salad to go with the hasselback potato. Steak is one of

the foods students liked and they were wanting more salad options. This idea was great! I ended up

changing my Theme Meal from Round is the New Skinny to An All Around Olympic Meal because I

couldn’t think of decorations for the “theme” Round is the New Skinny. The Scott manager thought

of Olympic rings since they were round so I just changed the theme to match the decorations.

However, I kept the round aspect of Round is the New Skinny with An All Around Olympic Meal.

Development and Preparation

Menu Development

I learned that each week students cannot have more than 2 starchy vegetables a week and

vegetables of all the different subgroups have to be offered each week. The day that I chose had a

starchy vegetable and a leafy green. After following the guidelines for school lunch my menu

became:

Salisbury Steak – a meat that is high in protein and low in ingredients, so it is a mostly

natural beef patty. Although it is red meat that is higher in fat and saturated fat than white, lean

meat this meat is not offered that often.

Dill Roasted Potatoes – this is my starchy vegetable. This recipe has few ingredients with

the unique flavor of dill and a little source of fiber.

Caesar Salad – this is my leafy green vegetable. This salad has non-fat Greek yogurt in its

dressing and the leafy green is romaine lettuce which is a great source of Vitamin A as opposed to

iceberg lettuce. It is also a good source of fiber.

Wheat roll – this is my whole grain. These rolls are low in calories and fat.

Oranges – this is my fruit. Oranges are a great source of vitamin C and fiber. They provide a

refreshing sweet taste to the dish.

Promotion Pieces

First, I made a menu of the foods being offered

and I used the Olympic rings to organize the foods. I

printed two of these out and put them at the beginning

of the line in the cafeteria. Second, I made Olympic rings

out of cardstock paper. Because my mom is a crafty

person I was able to make my own decorations at home using my mom’s craft equipment such as

the Cricut Maker. I made twenty Olympic rings and I taped them to the lines and I also hung them

up too. Then I made “Olympic Medals” for the satisfaction surveys out of the colored paper I used

for the rings.

I was able to be at Scott two days before my Theme Meal, so I put up my decorations on that

Tuesday. Furthermore, Tuesday morning I made

announcement of my Theme Meal to the students

that came through for breakfast. I knew that

wouldn’t be enough and high school students can

be oblivious to anything, so I decided to go out

after each lunch and talk with most of the students

at each lunch. I thought that was really successful and the most students were interested. Some

even asked questions that was able to answer. Lastly, I witnessed students actually reading the

signs that I taped to the line, so I would briefly explain what they were reading and answered any

questions they had.

Production Plan

Ordering and Receiving

The ordering and receiving occurred in chunks. Some of the items had never been on the

menu before like Salisbury steak, brown gravy, and dressing, and the rolls were only on the menu

for Thanksgiving meal. For these items, the Scott manager had to get the bid numbers from

Elizabeth, which took a few days, to be able to order them. All the other items, such as the produce

could be ordered simply on the website and then a purchase order would be filled out for Elizabeth

to approve. Since the Scott freezer was full, another school held our Salisbury steak until the day of

the Themed Meal. Bread is delivered on Mondays so the Klosterman rolls came on the Monday of

the week of the Themed Meal. All other shipments come in on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Producing the Theme Meal Menu Items

Below is a list of all the staff and the jobs they did on the Theme Meal day. The Jell-O and dill

infused oil were started the day before the Theme Meal. The Theme Meal day started out with me

reheating the dill infused oil so that the dill could infuse more. Then Sharie and I got started at

around 7:30, with the dressing. After Sharie helped me convert the recipe from 6 servings to about

150 or so servings she went to getting the Salisbury steak ready and continued with dumping the

dressing ingredients into the blender. Since I couldn’t try the dressing, Sharie would. The first batch

was so flavorful we made another batch with only yogurt, oil, and parmesan cheese to tone it down

a little. After wrapping the dressing and letting it chill in the fridge I started cutting heads of lettuce.

As I started with this job all the other staff members had shown up and were doing their part to get

lunch going. Unfortunately, the oranges were not slicing that well in the food processor so those

had to be sliced by hand. Once the potatoes were sliced they were submerged in water to keep from

turning brown. Then Sharee and Elissa started putting them on pans and drizzling them with the

dill infused oil.

Setting up the Line

As the menu items were coming together the staff started setting up the line. This was

around 9:45 with first of four lunches starting at 10:22. The rolls were first which were being kept

warm in a holding cabinet, the Salisbury steak was next on the line in a 2-inch pan in a hot well,

then the potatoes were next in the same container as the steak in a hot well. Then in a separate

station right next to the hot line was the cold line were the salad was. The dressing would be mixed

in the salad right before each lunch so that the salad would not get soggy. The croutons would be

put on at the students request. The croutons were in a small container on the counter of the line

and not in a well. The sandwiches were in a hot well next to the salad which had extra ice in the cold

well to keep the salad cold. The pizza was last on the line on a separate station on top of a heat pad.

There were no wells in the last station. The sandwiches and pizza are served every day and are the

alternatives as well as the grab in go boxes in the open-air displayer right before the cash register.

The oranges were in a 4-inch pan that was self-serve in between the pizza station the open-air

display units.

Staff

Sharee (Manager) – 6:30 – 2:00 slicing potatoes, made Jell-O day

before, supplying in the back during lunch

o 7 hours * $21.03 = $147.21

Sharie – 7:00-2:00 Salisbury steaks, helping me at times with Caesar

dressing, dill infused oil, server

o 6.5 hours * $12.80 = $83.2

Missy – 8:00 – 2:00 regular duties, making croutons, oranges; cash

register

o 5.5 hours * $13.51 = $74.31

Tiffany – 7:30-2:00 chopping lettuce, slicing oranges and potatoes,

dish

o 6 hours * $12.38 = $74.28

Bobbie – 6:30 – 1:30 regular duties; dish

o 6 hours * $12.91 = $77.46

Sue – 10:00 – 1:00 no prep, server,

o 3 hours * $12.21 = $36.63

Teresa – 8:00 – 2:00 regular duties, cash register

o 5 hours * $ 12.21 = $61.05

Elissa – 8:00 – 2:00 rolls in the warmer, helping with potatoes,

server

o 5.5 hours * 12.80 = $70.4

Melanie (Me) 6:30 – 2:00 – infusing oil with dill the day before,

making salad dressing, cutting oranges and lettuce, server

o Intern 😊

Mike (Custodian) – 10:30 – 2:15

o 3.5 hours * $16.88 = $59.08

Equipment Resources

Combi Oven

Blender, spatulas, pint containers to hold made dressing, measuring

cups,

Cutting board for salad, oranges

Paper service boats for salad

Slicer for potatoes

Warmers

Sheet pans for baking

Deep pans for serving food

Serving utensils

Standardized recipes

Ingredients 225 Servings Directions

Salisbury Steak 2251 oz steak patties

Wash your hands and put gloves on.Set your Combi oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Get six-inch pans to put the patties in. About 50 patties fits in each pan. Pack them in, in two rows on their rounded side, not the flat sides. Put the patties in the oven for 30 minutes. Take them out and put gravy on them and put them in the oven for another 5 minutes. After five minutes put them in the warmer out on the lines for service.

Brown Gravy 4 bags of gravy (4 gallons)

Pour hot water into the gravy. Keep the gravy warmed by pouring it on the steak to be cooked for another 5 minutes.

Nutrition in Salisbury Steak

o 84 grams per serving contains 240 calories, 20 grams of fat with 8 grams of

saturated fat, 450 mg of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, and 11 grams of protein.

Nutrition in Brown Gravy

o 2 Tablespoons of the gravy prepared contains 10 calories, 0.25 grams of fat, 0 grams

of saturated fat, 120 mg sodium, 1.5 grams of carbohydrates, and 0 grams of protein.

Ingredients 225 Servings Directions

Russet Potatoes 2.5 cases Wash your hands and put gloves on. Wash the potatoes.Set the Combi oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Gather six-inch pans to put sliced potatoes in. Cut the potatoes in half length-wise so they can fit in the Electrolux food processor.Put the potatoes through the Electrolux, placing them in the six-inch pans once they are sliced. Fill the six-inch pans so that there is about 2 inches of space left at the top. Run water over the potatoes so that the water just covers the top of the potatoes to keep from browning. Get plenty of full-size sheet pans to put the potatoes on.Shake the water off the potatoes as best as you can before putting them on the sheet pans to get oiled. Oil the potatoes and season them with dill. Put them in the preheated oven for 15-25 minutes. Watch the potatoes, the ones on the outside can cook faster than the potatoes on the inside.

Canola Oil 2 cups

Salt ¼ cup

Dill ½ cup

Nutrition in Dill Roasted Potatoes

o In half a cup of potatoes there are 86 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 0.2 grams of

saturated fat, 149 mg of sodium, 14.3 grams of carbohydrates, 1.5 grams of fiber, 1.8

grams of protein.

Ingredients 132 Servings Directions

Romaine Lettuce 22 heads Wash your hands and put gloves on.Get a cutting board and a chef’s knife. Wash the lettuce.

Chop the lettuce up for a salad. Use six, six-inch pans to fill half-way with the chopped lettuce. Takes about 4 heads of lettuce per six-inch pan.

Non-fat Plain Greek yogurt

15.5 cups Wash your hands and put gloves onGet a blender and measuring tools. Blend all the measured ingredients up until Whole Wheat Bread. It helps to do this in batches since the large amount of ingredients might not fit in the blender all at once. Therefore, get pint containers for the batches of dressing and mix them all together when all the batches are made.

Parmesan Cheese 10 cups

Canola Oil 4 cups

Lemon Juice 1 cup

Anchovy Paste 6 Tablespoons

Dijon Mustard 6 Tablespoons

Garlic Powder ½ tsp

Whole Wheat Bread 2 loaves Wash your hands and put gloves on.Set the Combi oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.Melt the margarine in a pot.Once the margarine is melted stir in the Italian Seasoning and garlic powder. Put the slices of bread on a full-size sheet pan so that all sides of the brad are touching another piece of bread. Brush the melted margarine mixture on one side of the pieces of bread. Put the pieces of bread in the pre-heated ovens for 9 minutes. Once the bread is cooked, cut the bread into crouton sized squares or rectangles and portion into small plastic cups for service.

Margarine 1 pound

Italian Seasoning 2 Tablespoon

Garlic Powder 3 Tablespoons

Nutrition in Caesar Salad

o In half a cup of salad there are 139 calories, 8.7 grams of fat, 1.7 grams of saturated

fat, 228 mg sodium, 6.9 grams carbohydrates, 2.2 grams of fiber, 9 grams protein

Ingredients 240 Servings Directions

Klosterman Wheat Rolls 240 wheat rolls Wash hands and put gloves on. Get the rolls out of the freezer and take them out of the packaging.Place the warmers on half-size sheet pans and place them in the warmers to heat up for service.

Nutrition in Klosterman Whole Wheat Roll

o In one wheat roll there are 80 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat,

135 mg of sodium, 15 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 3 grams of protein.

Ingredients 100 Servings Directions

Oranges 100 oranges Wash handsPut gloves onUse the Electrolux food processor oranges into sixths. Fill two four-inch pans to put on the line for service.

Nutrition in Orange Rounds

o In one half cup of oranges there are 38 calories, 0.12 grams of total fat, 0.01 grams of

saturated fat, 0.77 mg of sodium, 9.7 grams of carbohydrates, 1.7 grams of fiber, and

0.7 gram of protein.

Ingredients 300 Servings Directions

Lime Jell-O 300 Jell-O cups (4 oz)

DAY BEFOREWash handsPut gloves onFollow directions on Jell-O packagePut the liquid Jell-O in 4-6 oz plastic cups. Put the cups on sheet pans.Put sheet pans of Jell-O on a tall boy and wheel

the tall boy into the walk-in/refrigerator to set overnight.

Nutrition in Jell-O Cups

o In one four oz plastic cup of Jell-O there are 70 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of

saturated fat, 105 mg of sodium, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 17

grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein

Cost Per Plate

Include the cost to produce considering the cost of ingredients and

preparation. TOTAL: $1.37

Salisbury Steak - .59

o Each Steak - .56

o Broth - .03 (per 2 tablespoons)

Caesar Salad – 0.41

o Lettuce - .16 (.98 cents per head, 22 heads used)

o Croutons - .05

o Dressing – .2

Yogurt - .13 ($16.666/132 servings)

Anchovy Paste – .04 ($5.38/132 servings)

Dijon Mustard - .01 ($1.49/132 servings)

Lemon juice – .004, negligible

Oil – 0.01

Parmesan Cheese - .06

Rolls - .08 per roll, 24 rolls per bag (18 bags)

Potatoes - .13

o .11 per serving, .22 per potato

o Oil - .005, negligible

o Dill - .02 ($4.49 per container, one used)

Oranges – .14 per serving/ .27 per orange

Jell-O – Free – leftover menu item from last year, not serving it this

year so using this meal to get rid of the leftover Jell-O.

The revenue generated: determine the sale frequency for the items

Theme Meal Cost

Salisbury Steak with Brown Gravy:

$242.43

Dill Roasted Potatoes: $61.26

Caesar Salad: $66.36

Dinner Rolls: $37.80

Oranges: $31.50

o Total Cost: $439.35 Food Cost + $683.62

Labor Hours + 0 Decorations = 1,122.97

o Revenue: 684.08 from Themed Meal

o Revenue 684.08 – Cost 1,122.97 = Deficit -438.89

Vendors

Ellenbee – where some of the ingredients from the dressing came from

Kroger – where some of the ingredients from the dressing came from

Sysco – where the Salisbury steak came from

Creation Gardens – where the produce came from, such as the oranges and lettuce

Klosterman – where the rolls came from

Reducing waste and protecting the environment

The menu I created included foods that students liked so there shouldn’t have been too

much food waste. Any extra food or leftover food was saved such as the Salisbury steak and the

rolls. Only a couple sheet pans of potatoes were thrown out since the students liked them so much,

a few servings worth of the salad was thrown out, and not many oranges were thrown out. Food

waste was probably the most kind of waste seen on this day. I didn’t use any plastic or Styrofoam

self-serve cups. The only paper/plastic supply the students would’ve had were the small package of

fork, napkin, and straw and a carton of milk. If they chose a grab and go lunch that is in a plastic

container with some packaged food. By serving most of the food to the students we reduced paper

supply waste. Also forecasting from previous days, we made what we thought was enough and had

prepared extra for when we might need to immediately cook more for the next lunch. This greatly

helped reduce food waste as well.

Impact of Facility and Current Operations

Kitchen staff said that making the potato rounds was easier than putting frozen french fries

on a tray. The Salisbury steak and rolls were simple because there are not many steps in the

preparation, cooking, and serving process.

When two people on each line are serving the meal is served smoothly. There are a lot of

components but having two people makes the serving process efficient. The oranges would be

quartered next time instead of sliced in rounds since orange rounds are time consuming and the

kids were messing with them in the lunch room. With a few tweaks this meal is really successful

and helps the operations of the facility.

Student Satisfaction

Olympic Medal Surveys

Records of Progress

I started out thinking about nutritious round foods and call my theme meal, Round is the

New Skinny. I thought that would be a fun theme considering the talk about healthy at every size in

some of my nutrition classes. However, quinoa would be too expensive, and it is definitely not a

commodity item. I also picked out several vegetables however none of them were a leafy green.

Since the day I chose had a starchy vegetable and a leafy green I needed to match those vegetable

Left: Steak is pretty bomb, the potatoes were amazing. Right: Y’all kicked some butt with this one.

subgroups. I already picked out potatoes but instead of red pepper rings I had to think of how to

keep the round theme with finding a leafy green. For the meat I was thinking about meatball subs or

sausage patties with the cornbread, but none of the ideas were popping out. It wasn’t until I was

talking with the manager of Scott one morning that together we came up with the meal. After

reviewing the student surveys again and looking up a few things online we came up with the

Salisbury steak, the Caesar salad, and a wheat dinner roll since I already knew baked potatoes and

orange rounds would be part of the meal.

That was also the day that she mentioned the Olympic rings for decoration since I told her I

was having a hard time with what decorations and promotion items I should create for Round is the

New Skinny. After she came up with the idea of Olympic Rings I just switched the theme to the

Olympics since the Winter Olympics were underway any ways. I was glad the menu items changed

because trying to make a mostly allergen free menu would’ve been very difficult, expensive, and

stressful. I didn’t want to put any more pressure on the kitchen staff.

The last big change were the potatoes. I ended up buying a piece of equipment that made

cutting hasselback potatoes easier in hopes that this piece of equipment would speed up the

process of making them. Unfortunately, it did not. Both the kitchen staff and I tried out the

hasselback potatoes in our own time and we both saw how tedious this task would be. In the end

the manager found a recipe for dill roasted potatoes instead which still introduced a new flavor to

the students and was similar to the hasselback potatoes.

Whenever the staff would go on break we would all catch up on what their job was for the

theme meal day and what changes had occurred. The best reminder was Sharie who would also

remind me to test my menu items at home to make sure it worked and tasted good. She constantly

kept me in the mindset of preparing for the Theme Meal because she knew more than I did what

kind of a day it would be like. I am so grateful for Sharie and all that I learned from her.

Conclusion and Reflection

Overall my Themed Meal day turned out to be a success. It was a little rocky during the first

two lunches because I was busy handing out surveys to the students as they paid for their meal

while there was only one server on line two and two servers on line one. This meal really needs two

have two people on each line, so the first two lunches were slower at getting students through the

line since I was passing out surveys instead of helping with serving. I felt really bad because I

wanted to help serve but I needed to get the surveys to the students. The people at the register are

already telling them to make sure to get a fruit or whatever food component to make a

reimbursable meal so I didn’t want to give them another job. But after the second lunch they all

agreed that I should just help serve and let the people at the register handout the surveys saying,

“Check the ones you like, name and comment on the back”. After I finished serving I would go back

out to the cafeteria and make sure the students were putting their surveys in the box I provided. I

would then announce a winner at the end of each lunch for filling out the survey.

After lunch I even asked the kitchen staff what they thought out this day and besides being

grateful that they didn’t have to give a survey out each day at lunch that this meal was great to

serve. They mentioned that next time they would quarter the potatoes instead of slicing them into

rounds. Some even said that the potatoes rounds were easier and quicker to make than the frozen

french fries.

I learned that I need to acquire much better planning skills! Learning how to think into the

future and not get overwhelmed at the same time is a skill I need to practice. I also need to work on

leadership skills too. I didn’t feel comfortable telling them what to do unless they asked me what to

do or we were discussing a process or recipe they were confused about. If it was an open discussion

to talk about everything we needed to talk about the manager and I would clear up any confusion.