Aurora Public Schools sees an increase in participation, decrease in students leaving campus since drive-thru launch.

Aurora Public Schools in Colorado has introduced a drive-thru at its Vista PEAK Preparatory high school, and Shannon Solomon, director of nutrition services, has big plans for future dining in the district with more drive-thrus and satellite dining options.

Shannon Solomon, MS, SNS Director of Nutrition Services Aurora Public Schools Aurora, Colo.Solomon expected the drive-thru to achieve a number of goals. For example, she wanted to keep kids on campus – around 65% were leaving during lunch; at Vista PEAK that's now dropped to closer to 55%. Another goal achieved: alleviating crowding, which helps maintain safety at the school and having students to view the foodservice department as a restaurant, which would change the perception of school food. Here, Solomon discusses the drive-thru concept and her long-term vision.

Q: You created a drive-thru concept from a mobile kiosk. Describe the setup.

A: The drive-thru runs out of a custom-made mobile kiosk; it opened Oct. 30 last year after a soft opening three weeks earlier. We covered it with faux wood and put a skirt on it, so it doesn’t look mobile. It cost more than six figures, but it’s our first one. And we expect it will have paid for itself within the first five years.

It has a big window on either side: one for drive-thru and one on the opposite side for walkup service. If we did it again, the drive-thru window would be automatic rather than open manually, and we would make the window smaller because we lose storage space inside.

The kiosk is open three times a day: 90 minutes first thing in the morning, two hours at lunchtime, then another 90 minutes later in the day when parents are picking up kids. Orders are handed off in around 30 seconds.

Q: What items are offered via the drive-thru? And how does the foodservice team support it?

A: Our best sellers are hot breakfast burritos, and ham-and-cheese croissants with hash browns. At lunch we have pizza, salads, and entrees like Asian chicken and hamburgers. After school it’s mostly items like chips and jerky. We are also talking about trying to sell whole pizzas.

We use a little cargo van to bring food out from our central kitchen; hot food is transported hot and cold food is cold. We take food over there three times a day and sometimes refill in between.

We have created our own brand for this drive-thru — A-Town Eats — and it looks like restaurant food. We have six branded items at lunch and five at breakfast, such as the sandwiches and the breakfast burrito, which are also served in the dining hall.

Q: What equipment supports the drive-thru?

A: We have hot food holding cabinets, chip holders, a fresh-brew automatic coffee machine, a hot dog roller and a turning pretzel cabinet. The trailer is self-contained with plumbing and handwashing, and it’s like an RV so you drain it. We ran electricals out there, too.

Q: How many people does the drive-thru serve?

A: We serve around 200 people a day at the drive-thru and we’re busiest at breakfast because we serve coffee. These are all new sales and we’ve increased overall participation in our school foodservice by about 250 so we’re capturing customers who would not have chosen us.

Q: Will you open more drive-thrus?

A: We plan to — we’ve learned from our first one. We would add a pre-ordering system, improving speed, and have the drive-thru window lower to the ground for people in lower-profile vehicles.

For future locations, we’d go as far out, but within the campus, as we could. We would have more of a coffee staging warming center because that’s our most popular item. We would also change the walkup window to be a slider because right now that stays open.

We’ll also streamline the menu.

Q: What would your foodservice vision look like at a new high school?

A: My vision for foodservice at a new high school is we’d have the kitchen with three to five drive-thru windows attached, where kids could order and pick up. There would be no common dining area. Instead, we’d have six or seven satellite concepts throughout the school, each with 15 to 20 seats. We might have an Asian concept in one place; a potato bar at another. You’d have the safety of kids not congregated together at the same time every day and that would allow kids to choose and walk around.