Everything, Everywhere, All Day Long

Feeding boisterous kids during their school day has never been easy. But today, school nutrition directors face more challenges than ever before.

Of the more than 1,300 school foodservice directors and supervisors surveyed for the School Nutrition Association (SNA) 2024 Trends Report, 99% cited increasing costs as a challenge. Other challenges reported include staff shortages (more than 90%) and sourcing the right menu items and ingredients (87%).

Other noncommercial foodservice operators face these challenges, too. But these three overriding issues play out a bit differently in the school foodservice world, particularly in public school districts that rely most heavily on federal per-meal reimbursements under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program.

Participation rates for school lunch have grown substantially, especially in the eight states where school districts now provide free lunch to all students regardless of their family’s income: California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont. State- and district-wide free meal programs got a big boost during the pandemic when students were doing their classwork at home via internet connections. Since the pandemic, momentum for free lunch for all has been building across the country.

The latest cost and operational challenge, according to SNA media relations director Diane Pratt-Heavner, is a tightening of federal standards for NSLP meals that will require reductions in sugar and salt content as well as more scratch cooking. “Districts will rely on food suppliers for pre-prepared items that meet the new requirements, but doing more scratch cooking is important to these efforts as well. And they’ll need to be able to hold freshly prepared foods at proper temperature to maximize their appeal,” she says.

Fortunately, the federal government has offered a series of Supply Chain Assistance funding initiatives, most recently for the 2023-24 academic year, to help schools purchase unprocessed or minimally processed foods. In the SNA’s annual survey of school nutrition directors, 62% reported that the funding has allowed them to improve menus, 56% said it has helped them purchase new equipment, and 40% said they have been able to spend more on staffing.

A flexible action station at Brownsburg High School in Indiana supports the school’s new scatter-style experience. The new menu emphasizes scratch cooking and freshness. Staff prepare items on induction burners, waffle irons, woks and other countertop cooking equipment. Photo courtesy of Reitano Design Group

New Foods, New Serving Models

Middle school and especially high school students “want to see the same innovations in the school cafeteria that they see in local restaurants,” Pratt-Heavner says. That means customized meals, from burrito bowls and ramen bowls to made-to-order deli sandwiches that make the assembly line “look a lot like a Subway.”

Offering a wider variety of global foods is another strong long-term trend. “These kids do not see ethnic foods as ‘ethnic’ — they’re just food,” says Scott Reitano, FCSI, principal at Indianapolis-based Reitano Design Group. “The trend toward fusion has continued, and there’s a plant-forward attitude.”

Karen Thompson, an architect and project manager at Minneapolis-based Rippe Associates, sees menu trends trickling down from colleges and universities to K-12 schools. “Younger and younger students are expecting more and more,” she says. “School districts around the country now have menus online. Some schools have five options a day.”

Carri Sullens, associate principal at California- and Texas-based Webb Foodservice Design, believes that scratch cooking will continue to develop in the K-12 space in coming years in support of global cuisines. She says that specific cuisines will definitely include Mexican, as well as Indian and Japanese.

Sullens adds that serving styles in schools have also changed. “We’ve seen tons of remodels with serving lines going from speed lines to dish-up lines,” she says. Dish-up serving, she explains, means “food is served by staff members standing behind the hot and cold wells, putting 20 plates on a shelf in a pickup area for students to grab.” The rationale: Meals that staff “dish up” in front of students provide a more personal and visual experience while preserving the fast throughput needed for short lunchtimes. Dish-up models may also include grab-and-go cases for items such as milk and other beverages. Sullens says she’s currently working on a project with three separate dish-up stations in the lunchroom as well as both hot and cold grab-and-go cases.

These changes can lead to other design developments. “We’re seeing more of the back of house coming to the front of house,” Reitano says. “We’re seeing more of the open kitchen, but we want a controlled view. The important thing is the perception of freshness and in-house cooking.”

Smoothies are one menu item operators now often prep in the front of house, Reitano says. Flavor variety is not particularly important, he says, noting that “80% of the students will want strawberry-banana.”

In the servery, Reitano says, “we might see a protein being cooked on an induction burner at an action station, then being put into a hot food well. When students go to grab the burger, they’re seeing the freshness.”

A recent Reitano Design Group project at Brownsburg High School in Indiana transformed a cafeteria with an outdated and undersized serving line layout to an on-trend collegiate-style “scatter” food experience featuring a new menu based on scratch cooking. There, staff prepare items on induction burners, waffle irons, woks and other countertop cooking equipment, conveying perceptions of “action” and freshness. Students add their own toppings and condiments, giving them additional control over their meal.

Distributed Dining

Just as important as lunchtime is the School Breakfast Program, which provides reimbursement for schools to offer free breakfast to students. “Breakfast in the classroom is connected to higher test scores, better attendance, better attention and fewer behavioral problems,” Reitano says. “If the goal is better educated children, food is a part of that.”

Years ago, students who participated in the School Breakfast Program had to go to the school cafeteria to pick up their meal. But now, Pratt-Heavner says, “we continue to see expansion of breakfast in classrooms.”

Grab-and-go morning meals that students eat in their classroom or elsewhere may call for both hot and cold holding equipment, Pratt-Heavner notes. A cooler is necessary for milk, and a new USDA ruling that will allow schools to substitute a meat or meat alternative for a carbohydrate component will mean more hot
protein items and wraps that require hot holding.

Carts that staff can move around the campus as necessary throughout the day continue to become more prominent, Pratt-Heavner notes. “We see a lot of schools taking the opportunity to wheel the breakfast cart back to the cafeteria to use as a salad bar during lunch,” she says. “Orange County Public Schools in Florida did a demo of their food carts at our national conference; in addition to the traditional cafeteria line, kids can also go pick up their food at an outdoor window or at a cart.” The district uses golf carts as well as pushcarts, she notes.

Between sports and clubs, it’s not uncommon for students to remain at a high school for longer time periods, which in turn means students might seek food options to carry them through from breakfast till nearly dinner hour. “Many high schools and middle schools are putting in cafes to extend dining hours,” Reitano says. “There’s also a social aspect, with kids able to stay in their ‘neighborhoods’ to eat. We have available ventless equipment, speed ovens and better holding capacity, so why bring every kid to a central location? And the two fastest-growing food categories in schools are handheld items and beverages, and you can have those things in a cafe, right where the rubber meets the road.”

Some districts view food carts, cafes and vending machines as revenue generators, offering foods and beverages outside the NSLP that require participants to pay. Others offer both a la carte options and items that comply with rules for free or low-cost USDA-reimbursed NSLP meals. “It depends on how affluent the school district is,” Reitano says. “A cart or cafe can
also push usage of free or low-cost reimbursed meals.”

In addition, the provision of evening, weekend and summertime meals to students off-site continues post-pandemic. “Dinner and summer food programs are not super common, but we see them,” says Sullens. “The student or a family member picks up the meal that cafeteria staff have prepared for the day, but the school doesn’t provide seating.”

How food is distributed to students depends in part on where it’s being prepared. There are pros and cons to both on-site prep at each school and use of a central production kitchen. “I’ve seen some school districts move more toward trying to prepare everything on-site to ensure maximum freshness and make sure everything is really appealing,” says Pratt-Heavner. “But others do more central prep. It really depends on the district’s capabilities.”

“Some school districts have a central production kitchen or a central warehouse,” says Shane Cory, senior project manager at Rippe Associates. “They process and store a lot of ingredients and then ship them out to satellite schools.”

School districts that go above and beyond by offering extras like local farm-to-school programs “typically have a central production process and satellite out to other schools,” says Thompson. “Those are the districts that have more staff available to clean, cut and process ingredients.”

Photo courtesy of Reitano Design Group

The Equipment Battery: What School Kitchens Need Now

“More scratch prep in kitchens requires more equipment investments, and equipment was a big issue our members raised in our survey,” says Pratt-Heavner. “Schools are looking for anything that will allow them to prepare items in healthy ways while minimizing labor. Anything that can peel or slice produce is a big time-saver.”

To make updating kitchen equipment a little easier, the federal government has issued a series of Equipment Assistance Grants to state authorities to administer, with districts applying for state grants to replace, renovate or purchase equipment needed for healthier school meals and food safety. Some states, such as California, have provided additional funding, Pratt-Heavner says.

“Equipment flexibility is key,” says Sullens. A combi oven that can cook several different menu items saves space by reducing the amount of equipment an operation will need, she notes. She has also seen increased use of new electric tilt skillets that can be used for boiling, frying and pressure cooking. And almost all new-build school kitchens feature electric induction ranges, she adds.

Thoughtful kitchen design is also important, Sullens points out: “Kitchens should be designed to reduce steps that staff needs to take and to ensure that ingredients are close at hand and everything has its place.”

Cory notes the need for “pass-through warmers and refrigerators to help backload equipment more efficiently for serving lines, so that items can be quickly laid out for portioned meals.” He also points out that the labor shortage may require more use of disposables: “Using disposable trays instead of washable trays takes a person away from the dish room to go out on the line and help serve students.” 

3 Trends Influencing School Foodservice Design

Distributed dining. “There are all kinds of distributed dining models,” says Scott Reitano, FCSI, principal at Reitano Design Group. “High schools nowadays are open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., at least, so there’s a need for foodservice over longer hours.”

Breakfast anywhere. “Many school districts are investing in kiosks and carts to get grab-and-go breakfast to where the students are — whether that’s in their classroom, at their locker, or when they’re getting off the bus in the morning,” says Diane Pratt-Heavner, media relations director, School Nutrition Association.

Scatter-style food stations. “High school students are expecting scatter-style serving and more options,” says Karen Thompson, an architect and project manager at Rippe Associates.

K-12 POS Considerations

Point-of-sale systems play a critical role in the speed and efficiency of school cafeterias. The cashier unit in the remodeled cafeteria at Brownsburg High School, a Reitano Design Group project, is at some distance from the servery, reducing congestion in the room even if a line develops at the POS. The WiFi-connected station is also double-sided, allowing two students
to go through it simultaneously.

Display shelves for impulse grab-and-go items are built in, and these stations are completely mobile: The number in use at any time is dictated by the population of students to be served during that period.

Photo courtesy of Reitano Design Group